This spring, the maple trees have an abundance of "extra" sap to give to those who are willing to put in the long hours of collecting, boiling and bottling. The children have been coming to school telling us tales about their weekend visits to local sugar shacks, and spending time with family and friends who continue the tradition of tapping sugar maples. It is an exciting time of year, marked by the warm days and cold nights that ensure a steady flow of sap.
At school, we have turned our water table into a maple syrup evaporator. Our sap pail hangs within reach, as the children count to 40 and little hands steadily fill the bucket, only to dump it into the evaporator again. It takes a whopping 40 containers of sap to boil down to 1 container of syrup. 40:1
We explored the spile, that gets hammered into the tree. We were curious ....
How does the sap get in the spile? Ahhh. There is a hole.
Why is the hole on the bottom?
The children turned to their neighbour to "talk" and share ideas. We never underestimate the critical reasoning of a 4 year old. The sap rises up from the bottom of the tree! Ask them to demonstrate! (*early concept development of xylem and phloem - highschool biology!)
And since the children can never get enough of the block centre, we took a look at the design of a few sugar shacks. What do they have in common? We spoke about the difference between smoke and steam. Because there is so much evaporation that happens, the steam needs to escape the shack. The children broke into 'focus groups' and designed their own sugar shacks, keeping in mind the need for a vent, to allow steam to escape.
And of course, if you give a JK some maple syrup, chances are, they'll want some food to go with it.
We brainstormed ideas for the kitchen, and we're impressed with their culinary skills!
We love to see their creativity at play.
Thanks for stopping by the atelier!
