Maple Weekend

It's the end of winter here in New England, and we're enjoying a New England tradition:  Maple sugaring!

Over the last couple of weeks, we've seen many a maple tree with buckets attached!  Yep, when the days get warm but the nights are still cold, that's the right conditions for getting that sap flowing! They collect that sap and boil away!

• Did you know it takes 40 - 50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup?

I love to use children's literature to teach science and social studies concepts.  

This topic includes both, a little history of the New England area, plus the science of trees and sap, as well as states of matter and evaporation!

Want to learn more about how maple syrup is made?  Here are a couple of informational books for kids about the process.  

• From Maple Trees to Maple Syrup
• The Maple Syrup Book

Here are a few realistic fiction books that share the experience of maple sugaring:

• Sugaring
• Maple Syrup Season
• Sugar Snow
• At Grandpa's Sugar Bush

It's truly a fascinating process!  There are several "Sugar Houses" in my area, and a true hint that winter is nearing an end.  The State of New Hampshire officially declared this "Maple Weekend" and many Sugar Houses are opened to the public this weekend!

Here's a little video I found on Youtube that demonstrates the process.

Doesn't it make you wonder how people figured out that draining trees of sap and boiling it like crazy would make a yummy liquid?  Did they try oak trees and pine trees?  How did they know to drill a hole in the tree and put a bucket underneath?  

Here's one fiction book that suggests how it might have happened, back in the days when Native Americans lived peacefully with the earth in the New England area:

• Maple Moon

Don't you just love books that put you in a totally different time and place? Historical fiction is one of my very favorite genres, how about you?

Do you have maple sugar farms where you live?