Students develop an understanding of the maple syrup process from tapping trees to evaporating sap through hands-on experiences.

Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe School has an annual sugarbush within a few miles of the school.  During the Spring sugarbush season, students are bussed to the site, by class, to do the variety of daily tasks required to successfully produce maple syrup.  The LCO middle school students follow the Ojibwe traditions.  They hear the traditional stories, learn words and phrases in the Ojibwemowin language, tap trees, collect and boil sap, chop wood and build fires. The students learn about tree identification, photosynthesis, and aging trees using cross sections.  They also learn about the importance and uses of Maple trees.  The students learn that the environmental conditions needed to make maple syrup are only found in a very small part of the world that includes Wisconsin.  The combination of hands-on exploration and culturally - relevant texts personalize the learning experience for this region.   

This web based resource will guide educators in getting kindergarten students outdoors to identify a maple tree, it's characteristcs, and leaf shape. Students will learn how sap is processed into syrup and the many foods made from maple syrup. They will taste maple syrup products and graph the results. This would be a great lead-in lesson to actually tapping a maple tree and boiling down sap into maple syrup.