Sap to Syrup: A Sweet Classroom Adventure

Winter is actually not my favorite season, but thanks to my friend, Jeff Yeager, my recent experience with late winter maple syrup-making has begun to change that.  In Ohio and similar regions, mid-February to mid-March is the perfect time for tapping and boiling maple sap into maple syrup.  The warming air temperatures, harbingers of the coming season, jump start the flow of sap left over from the previous year.  The energy from this sap will soon fuel the spring growth of flowers, buds, leaves, and pancake syrup! When late winter temperatures rise above freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day and below freezing at night, the sweetest sap of the year begins to rise and fall.

The following components are included in this article:

• Video: Tree Tapping and Collecting Sap
• Video: Sap Boiling and Discussion
• Video: Syrup Day
• Videos: Pancake Day
• The Origin of Syrup Making: An Iroquois Legend
• Literature Connections and Other Internet Resources

Authors Note:  The information and videos included below are intended to show the experience through the eyes of my students, but are not necessarily intended to be a "how to" guide to syrup making.  I highly recommend having someone experienced walk you through the process the first time (as Jeff did for me) if you truly want to become hooked on this marvelous annual tradition.

Video: Tree Tapping and Collecting Sap 
Sap is collected once daily over a period of 6-10 days.



Video: Sap Boiling and Discussion 
Six gallons of sap are boiled during school over a period of four days.



Video: Syrup Day
The final day of sap boiling.


Video One:  Pancake Day 
Pancake Preparation and Discussion


Video Two: Pancake Day
Pancake Cooking, Eating, and Discussion


The Origin of Syrup Making: An Iroquois Legend
Native Americans were the first to discover that sap from maple trees could be processed into syrup.  No one knows exactly how this process was discovered, though an Iroquois legend tells of the story this way:
Woksis, the chief, hurled his tomahawk into a tree one night for safe keeping.  The next morning as he went off to hunt, he took his tomahawk from the big, beautiful maple.
Eventually, sap began to run from the gash Woksis left in the tree, and it collected in a vessel which happened to be below.  Woksis's wife, Moqua, discovered the sticky mess.
Later on that evening, Moqua was busy making dinner.  When she accidentally let her pot boil dry twice, she realized that she would not have enough time to fetch more water, so she decided to use the sticky concoction she had found earlier in which to cook her meat.
Woksis came home and tasted the meat coated in sticky syrup and was quite impressed.
From then on, Native Americans collected the sweet sap to make syrup and sugar.
Source: The Maple Sugar Book by Helen and Scott Nearing (1970).

Literature Connections

Picture Book: Sugarbush Spring by Marsha Wilson Chall is a wonderful book to read-aloud for children.  It tells the story of syrup making through the eyes of a child.

Biography: Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky is a great nonfiction read independent read for students in grades four on up that profiles an actual family as they tap sap and process it into syrup on their New England farm.  A Newbery Honor book.







Other Internet Resources (these are two of many helpful resources on the Internet)

• Helpful Directions:  How to Tap Maple Trees and Make Maple Syrup
• Background Information: Cornell Sugar Maple Research and Extension Program