Maple Sugarin’
Teacher’s Guide
February 2011
Grades: 2, 3, 4 & 5
Time: 2 ½ Hours
The sweetness of spring, the miracle of photosynthesis, and the magic of Maple Sugarin’ are presented in a fast-paced
visit to a sugarbush! Wisconsin Standards: Students discover how different cultures use natural resources. They
investigate how organisms, especially plants, respond to both internal cues and external cues. Students learn inquiry
skills by making observations, asking questions, collecting information, making predictions and offering explanations
about questions asked.
Focus Concept:
The importance of the history and process of making maple syrup to Wisconsin.
Essential Understandings, Processes and Skills:
Understandings:
1. The impact of the annual solar cycle on the growth of living things.
2. Photosynthesis is a process that occurs in green plants in which chlorophyll, activated by sunlight, converts carbon
dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen.
3. Sugar, produced through photosynthesis, is a plant’s food. Sugar is a source of energy.
4. The seasonal creation, use and storage of sugar in a tree.
5. The layers of a tree (bark, cambium, heartwood, innerbark, sapwood) and the layers’ functions.
6. Sap flow is dependent upon environmental parameters such as temperature, wind and snow cover.
7. The importance of maple syrup to Native cultures.
8. The history of Wisconsin 250 years ago.
9. The process of making maple syrup.
Processes and Skills:
1. Winter tree identification using branches, buds, and bark.
2. Make a sumac spile and tap a tree.
3. Describe the process of making maple syrup.
4. Demonstrate the creation of tree sap.
Vocabulary:
bark, cambium, evaporator, heartwood, inner bark, photosynthesis, sap, sapwood, sisibakwat, sopomahtek, spile,
sugarbush, tap
Preparation Activities at School:
Riveredge is a partner with you, the teacher, in creating a high-quality educational experience. We depend on you to
prepare your students for their hands-on activities at Riveredge. Please do at least the starred activities before your
field trip. This preparation is essential for the curriculum goals to be met. We provide this teacher’s guide to help
prepare your students. We are committed to excellence, so if you are unable to meet the expectations in the guide or
have any questions, please contact a Riveredge educator for help at 262/675 - 6888 (local), or 262/375 -2715 (metro).
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Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, 2004. This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.
Activities that should be done before the field trip:
* Denotes important activities that should be done before the field trip.
*1. Familiarize your students with the vocabulary words defined at the end of this guide.
*2. Help your students learn about the process of photosynthesis and how it relates to maple sugaring.
Enclosed are various activities to convey this concept.
a. Food Factories
b. Photosynthesis worksheets
*3. Develop the concepts of opposite and alternate. Have the students bring in a branch from a bush or tree in their
backyard. Use their samples to explain opposite and alternate branching. This concept will be one of the key
factors in their being able to identify a sugar maple tree. Sugar maples have opposite branching.
alternate
opposite
4. Explore the signs of spring. Bring together your students’ awareness of the change of seasons to help them
understand the uniqueness of maple sugaring time. The American Indians called this time Sisibakwat, the time of
melting snow.
5. Read to your students the chapter called “The Sugar Snow” in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book, Little House in the Big
Woods. Your students are almost certain to encounter sugar snow when they visit Riveredge.
At Riveredge:
The element of surprise is a very important part of this program! Please do not tell your students too much about the
experience they will have at Riveredge.
THIS PROGRAM IS ENTIRELY OUTSIDE AND THERE IS NO SHELTER AVAILABLE! EVERYONE
MUST WEAR WARM BOOTS! Sometimes there is NO snow left in town and yet there will be six or eight inches
of snow remaining in the forest. The trails become very muddy and there is often standing water in places along the
way. Please be firm about requiring that students bring boots to school and wear them the day of the field trip. Also,
please make sure each student has a name tag.
Food Tasting/Eating Information
This school program involves students in tasting/eating Staghorn Sumac berries (a wild edible) and prepared food
(pancake, dill pickle, maple syrup). We do not require that students taste/eat these items - we leave the choice up to the
students. Please be aware of any food allergies your students may have.
1. At the West Entrance your class will be met by a group of teacher naturalists. Classes will be divided into
smaller groups, each with their own Teacher Naturalist. This is best done upon arrival at Riveredge when the
number of students and Teacher Naturalists have been finalized. Please have your students wear name tags. All
necessary equipment will be provided by Riveredge. Each teacher naturalist will lead their group through a series
of introductory activities which will prepare the students for finding and tapping a sugar maple tree.
2. Midway through the program the small groups will combine with one or two other groups to tap a tree. The
children will test their skills at finding a sugar maple and one of the trees that the students find will be tapped.
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Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, 2004. This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.
3. Your class will spend the final half hour of the program together. The students will visit Father Fire at the Sugar
Inn and see the actual boiling process, making syrup from sap. The last activity will be tasting Riveredge maple
syrup on a pancake and a pickle. (SHHH! REMEMBER -- IT’S A SECRET!)
Follow-up Activities at School:
1. Make a class mural depicting all aspects of the maple sugaring process. Divide the class into
small groups and ask each group to work on one of the following: American Indians, sisibakwat,
sopomahtek, spiles, photosynthesis, identifying and tapping a tree or the boiling of sap to make
syrup. Hang the mural where others can see it. Discuss their work and the processes they depicted.
2. Ask each student to write a letter to Father Fire or to make a simple drawing of their favorite part of their
maple sugaring experience. Send the pictures and letters to us so we can enjoy them, too!
3. Read your students a book about maple sugaring (see bibliography) and ask them to tell you what the
similarities and differences are between the book and their experience at Riveredge. Make a list of these
differences and similarities as they tell them to you. Discuss them.
5. Begin or continue a unit on pioneers or American Indians. Learn some of their other traditions, customs or
folk tales.
6. (For older students) Calculate the number of gallons of sap to make a unit of syrup. Syrup is 86% sugar.
(The formula is: a = 86 divided by x )
If sap is 3% sugar (86 divided by 3 = 28.7 gallons of sap)
If sap is 2% sugar (86 divided by 2 = 43 gallons of sap)
If sap is 1% sugar (86 divided by 1 = 86 gallons of sap)
Vocabulary:
bark The protective, outer layer of a tree.
cambium The green, living part of the tree.
evaporator A set of very large pans used to boil sap into syrup.
heartwood The dead, old woody tissues in the center of a tree trunk.
inner bark The part of the wood that carries the food from the leaves to the stems and roots.
photosynthesis The process in which green plants use sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to make sugar and oxygen.
sap Water that contains sugar and minerals and provides the food for trees; used to make maple syrup and sugar.
sapwood The outer, new layer of wood found between the cambium and the heartwood; sap runs through it.
sisibakwat An American Indian word that means “time of the melting snow.”
sopomahtek An Indian word that means sugar bush or maple tree
spile A spout placed into tap holes to channel the flow of sap into a bucket or bag.
sugarbush A woods where sugar maple trees grow and maple sap is collected to make syrup.
tap To drill into a sugar maple tree to draw off some of the sap.
Resources:
REFERENCE BOOKS
Bruchac, Joseph and Caduto, Michael J., American Indian Animal Stories, Fulcrum Publishing, CO, 1992.
Burns, Diane. Sugaring Season: Making Maple Syrup, Carolrhoda Books, Inc., MN, 1990.
Lawrence, James M. and Martin, Rux. Sweet Maple, Chapter Publishing Ltd., Vermont, 1993.
Wittstock Waterman, Laura. Ininatig’s Gift of Sugar: Traditional Native Sugarmaking, Lerner Publications
Company, MN, 1993.
STORYBOOKS
Bruchac, Joseph and London, Jonathan. Thirteen Moons On Turtle’s Back: A American Indian Year
of Moons, Putnam.
Warnock Kinsey, Natalie. When Spring Comes, Dutton Children’s Books, NY, 1993.
Wilder Ingalls, Laura. Little House in the Big Woods, Scholastic Book Services, NY, 1932.
(Pioneer life with a chapter dedicated to maple sugaring, “The Sugar Snow”)
Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producers Association
Gretchen Grape, Executive Director
33186 Cty Rd W.
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Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, 2004. This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.
Holcombe, WI 54745-9407
phone # : (715) 447 – 5758
fax # : (715) 447 - 5407
VIDEO
Maple Syrup: Something Special
No charge if you pick up and return. $5.00 mailing and handling fee if we mail to you.
Website:
http://www.nativetech.org/sugar/sugarbush.html Learn about Maple sugaring from a Native American perspective.
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Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, 2004. This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.
PHOTOSYNTHESIS WORKSHEET
Plants make their own food through a process called
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
photo = light
synthesis = put together
A plant makes its food by putting things (carbon dioxide and water) together with light from the sun.
A plant combines light energy (sunshine) with carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) to make sugar and oxygen (O2).
+
CO2
+
H2 O
=
Sugar
+ O2
Plants get their green color from a material called chlorophyll. When the sun shines on a plant the chlorophyll traps
the light energy.
The carbon dioxide (CO2) a plant uses is gathered from the air.
The water (H2O), along with minerals, is brought up
from the soil through the plant’s roots.
Through the chlorophyll, the carbon dioxide and the water combine to make sugar and oxygen, which are food for the
plant.
The sugar that the plant does not immediately use is stored in the plant. The oxygen that the plant does not use is
released into the air.
Write the equation for photosynthesis below:
____________ +
____________ +
____________ =
____________ +
____________
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Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, 2004. This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.
PHOTOSYNTHESIS WORKSHEET II
If you can answer the following questions, you will be a photosynthesis expert!
1. Can you list two ways the sugar that is made in photosynthesis and stored in plants is used? (Can anything
besides the plant use the sugar?)
2. How can oxygen that is released by plants be used?
3. Can you name two other words that have “photo” in them? What do they mean?
4. How does air pollution affect plants? (Think about the process of photosynthesis when you answer this.)
Answers to questions on the Photosynthesis worksheet:
1.
Acceptable answers would be similar to the following:
as energy for the plant
to help the plant build new substances it needs
to make maple syrup from the sap gathered from sugar maple trees
for people when they eat fruit or seeds
for food for insects, birds and mammals
when burned to heat homes or cook food
2.
People and other animals use it to breathe.
3.
Examples of some other words: photograph, photography, photocopy, photogenic, photosensitive, photoelectric. These words and
their definitions are easily found in the dictionary.
4.
An acceptable answer would be similar to the following: Air pollution could make it difficult for plants to gather carbon dioxide or
sunlight by coating the leaves with a dirty film or by causing smog which would block out some of the sunlight.
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Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, 2004. This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.