What are smoke signals?

Smoke signals are messages sent up into the sky using smoke from fires.

Imagine you're playing hide and seek with your friends in a big forest. You can't see them because they're too far away, but you want to let them know you found their hiding spot. So instead of shouting (which might wake up the whole neighborhood!), you light a fire on a hilltop. The smoke from that fire rises into the sky, and your friends see it, that's a smoke signal!

When someone lights a fire in a special way, like using certain kinds of wood or adding wet materials to make thick smoke, they can create different colors or patterns of smoke. Each pattern means something different, just like how you might use different hand signals when playing games.

Sometimes people use multiple fires on top of hills to send more complex messages, it's like having a whole team working together to help you win the game!

So next time you see smoke rising in the distance, maybe someone is sending you a message!