The students were quite fascinated. Many of them have very different experiences when it comes to maple syrup production. Many remembered Chief Top Leaf speaking about how the first native Canadians discovered maple sap, gathered and boiled it producing the amber coloured goodness. Today, we tried to replicate the maple syrup production experience in class. We "tapped" our own trees.
Drilling the hole.
Tapping the spile in.
Hanging the bucket.
Audrey decided our maple sugar camp should be named "The Sugar Den".
Gabe and friends made a menu.
We learned that the sap travels up and down the trunk of the tree depending on the temperature and that the optimal temperature for the sap to run is plus 5 during the day and minus 5 at night. Many students had fun fluctuating the temperature with the thermometer.
Some students were busy making "pancakes and sausages" to complete the experience.
When we returned to the classroom we discovered that the sap had run...and there was sap in our bucket (special thanks to the Findlay family). Owen H. Showed how we could taste test it! We looked in the bucket and noticed that it contained dirt in it. Sidney remembered that when we melted snow, we had filtered it, so he suggested that we use a filter to clean the sap! It was quite amazing how much dirt was filtered out.
Everyone got a chance to taste a bit of maple sap. In the following days, we will continue to play and learn in our own "sugar den"! A huge thank you to Jack, Calahan and their family who kindly provided us with the materials and donated some sap and syrup! Yum!
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