In New England the sap buckets are going up on the sugar maple trees. As the thaw begins maple farmers are beginning to harvest sap for one of my favorite treats...maple syrup!
There is so much to learn in the process of maple sugaring. Science, math, botany, engineering, history! Here is some background on the process of making maple syrup and lots of learning resources. Whether you hail from an area that makes syrup or not, there is something here to help you teach kids about maple syrup.
When you are finished with the learning, may I suggest consuming some pancakes and syrup as an capstone to your maple syrup unit?
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Making Maple Syrup
Maple syrup is a versatile sweetener full of antioxidants. A secret treasure humans have borrowed from nature.
Maple syrup is a product made from the sap of a sugar maple tree. When winter begins to thaw into spring and temperatures fluctuate back and forth from warm to freezing the sap begins to flow.
Positive pressure builds in the tree when temperatures rise above freezing. This pressure forces the sap out of holes made in the tree for sugaring. Then as temperatures dip to below freezing again, negative pressure develops. This causes suction to draw water into the roots, replenishing the sap. The freeze-thaw cycle allows sugar farmers to collect sap during a short window of time as winter turns to spring.
Native Americans and European settlers collected the sap of sugar maples as it began to flow during early spring thaws. Much as we do today, they painstakingly boiled it down into a syrup. It was an excellent way to preserve food without refrigeration.
Today trees are still tapped and sap is collected in buckets, as has been tradition for years. More modern methods include collecting syrup through a series of plastic tubing and utilizing methods like reverse osmosis to maximize the time spent harvesting and boiling sap.
Sap is boiled down into syrup. In general it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. It is a time and labor intensive process for a small yield. Remember to thank a maple farmer next time you are enjoying some glorious maple syrup!
Maple Sugaring Teaching Resources
If you are fortunate enough to live near a sugar bush, then perhaps you can take your class or children on a maple syrup field trip! If not, here are tons of other learning resources for learning at home or in the classroom.
When will the sap run? A free printable math activity, identify which days the sap will run based on a month of temperature fluctuations.
For grades 4-5th, 26-pages of background and student activities for maple sugaring season.
Make your own maple candy from syrup in this Science Buddies activity.
25-page digital download with videos, Maple Syrup Making Unit Study.
K-2nd grade activity, Be a Sugar Maker, students role-play the process of maple sugaring.
Maple sugaring picture book list.
3-5th grade activity, Nature's Factory at Work, build a model of a tree and learn the process of photosynthesis.
Tree rings activity, learn the age of a maple tree.
Maple Mini Study for PreK-2nd grade.
6th-12th grade, learn about Maple Sugar Molecules and Crystals while making your own rock candy.
Free, downloadable maple information posters.
Preschool and elementary Maple Syrup Study Unit, 8 activities.
Many more Maple Syrup learning resources here!
More Maple Syrup Fun
Use that maple syrup with these awesome maple syrup recipes for kids!
Some picture books to share with the kids on maple sugaring.
