Maple Syrup Season.

Maple Syrup Season.

By Ann Purmell

Illustrated by Jill Weber

Book Summary:

This is one of my favorite books because I can remember very vividly, before the age of five, when I lived in West Granby, Connecticut, the people who came every winter to tap our trees for maple syrup. We were always invited to the place where they made the syrup, which was an old mill, and they gave us free maple syrup and maple candy because we let them tap the trees on our property. 
http://www.connecticutmaplesyrupfestival.com/

This story takes place toward the end of winter, before the snow has melted and while the plants and animals are still asleep. There is still snow on the ground but "sap is running in the old sugar maple trees," so Hannah,  Hayden, and their Uncle John head out to Grandpa's sugar bush to help make maple syrup. At the sugar bush Grandpa drills a hole in one of the trees and hammers in the sap spout. Before long sap is dripping into a bucket. The whole family then gets to work and soon the woods are full of the sounds of sap dripping into buckets. Three days later the buckets are full of sap and it is time to take the sap to the sugar house where it will be cooked until it turns into maple syrup.

Sap to Syrup.

By Inez Snyder

Book Summary:
*This book is to be used in support of the book, Maple Syrup Season.

This book, Sap to Syrup, would be helpful to use as a reference for all of the steps in the maple syrup making process and would support the book Maple Syrup Season, with real photographs, and decodable text. This book is more factual, non-fiction, but would be a great addition to a lesson driven by introduced with Maple Syrup Season, and a great text to have in the Classroom library during a Seasonal Changes theme unit. If you cannot take a class into a place where maple syrup is made, a book like this is the next best thing.

Lesson: Maple Syrup Winter Sequencing.
Grade Level: Kindergarten.
Lesson Duration: 35 minutes.
Standards addressed: Science & Language Arts:
Standard: K-4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of seasonal weather] changes.
Indicators: K-4.2: Compare the weather patterns that occur from season to season.
K-4.3: Summarize ways that the seasons affect plants and animals.
Standard: K-1: The student will demonstrate an understanding of scientific inquiry, including the processes, skills, and mathematical thinking necessary to conduct a simple scientific investigation.
Indicator: K-1.1: Identify observed objects or events by using the senses.
Standard K-2: The student will begin to read and comprehend a variety of informational texts in print and non print formats.
Indicators: K-2.1: Summarize the central idea and details from informational texts read
aloud.
K-2.2: Analyze texts during classroom discussions to make inferences.
Lesson Objectives:

-The student will identify the steps involved in making maple syrup, from first collecting sap from trees to when it is ready to be eaten.

-The student will correctly put the sequencing cards covering the events of the story, Maple Syrup Season, in order.

-The student will explain why trees are tapped for maple sap only in the winter, when it is cold, verses during other times of the year.

Materials:

-Purmell, A. (2008). Maple syrup season. New York, NY: Holiday House.

-Snyder, I. (2005). Sap to syrup. Hartford, CT: Children's Press.

-Double-sided sequencing cards (One set for each group of students)-one side has an illustration and the other a word.

-Sentence Strips.

-Sharpie Pen.

-Large Flip Chart.

-Pocket Chart.

-Bottle of maple Syrup.

-Maple Tree Photograph.

-Maple Leaves.

Introduction:

1. With the class seated in a circle on the carpet, the teacher will ask the class, "Who likes pancakes?" The teacher will ask the class if anyone had pancakes for breakfast this morning.
The teacher will then ask the class what people put on their pancakes when they eat them. Expected response: maple syrup.
2. The teacher will ask the class if they know where maple syrup comes from and in what season during the year do people typically make it.
3. The teacher will explain that maple syrup is typically harvested in winter when the trees are tapped (Teacher will explain term, demonstrating with a bucket and a tree-tap the process involved).
4. The teacher will show the students a picture of a maple tree and pass around maple leaves for the class to look at up close.
5. The teacher will introduce the book, Maple Syrup Season, to the class.
6. The teacher will ask the class to pay close attention to the steps that are involved in making maple syrup.
7. The teacher will read aloud to the class, Maple Syrup Season.
8. The teacher will ask the student why he/she thinks maple syrup is tapped from the trees during the winter and what happens to maple trees in the winter that creates the maple sap. The teacher will refer to the book, Sap to Syrup, for images and facts about the process of making maple syrup.
9. The teacher will ask the student if he/she can remember the sequence of events in the story that the people went through to make maple syrup. The teacher will explain to the class that they will be do an activity where they will be arranging the events in the book from beginning to end in order to show the process of making maple syrup.
10. The teacher will ask the the student to return to his/her table group, so that he/she can begin the activity.
Procedure:

1. The teacher will activate schema by recalling past sequencing activities that have been done in class. The teacher will explain that sequencing is the correct order of events, such as the steps the student goes through in the morning to get ready for school.

2. The teacher will ask the class if any student can come up with another example of a sequence of events.

3. Before the teacher hands out the sequencing cards, the teacher will ask the students if there are any words that they think are new and important in the story, that maybe they have not ever heard before. The teacher will write these words on sentence strip, into the pocket chart, and define them with the help of the class. The teacher will go through the words on each of the sequence cards they will be using to make sure the student has seen how it is spelled and pronounced and what it means. The teacher will add any words the class does not know to a sentence strip and onto the pocket chart.

4. The teacher will distribute the 2-sided sequencing cards to each group and ask them to put them in the correct order.

5. The teacher will tell each group to raise their hands when they think they have the cards in the correct order and the teacher will check that the order is correct.

6. During the sequencing activity, the teacher will walk around the room, providing scaffolding to students/groups that need it.

7. The teacher will carry a clipboard and class list in order to assess the students.
8. Once all groups have completed the activity the teacher will go over the correct answers and discuss the process with the class as a whole and why does the process take place in winter.