The children in the School Age 2 program at RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Patrick wanted to learn how maple syrup is made.  We watched a video that showed how farmers collect sap from trees and boil it in big metal pans called evaporators to make it thick. They also observed how farmers do a “sheet test” to make sure the syrup is ready.

After the video, we had a conversation about the video. The children retained so much of the information!

Liam knew that the sap comes from the Sugar Maple tree, Brady noticed that sap looks just like water and isn’t very sweet yet, Jasper explained that boiling the sap helps “take the water out”, and Petra remembered that indigenous people were the first ones to find out how to make this treat.

We wanted to make real maple syrup taffy using the snow, but since the snow had melted, we moved the fun inside. I boiled some maple syrup on a baking tray with parchment paper and the children practiced rolling it onto popsicle sticks. Everyone had a lot of fun pretending to be sugar bush farmers!

We also did a “drip test“ to see how the different liquids move. The children were excited to see that the honey was very slow, the sap (which is like water) was very fast, and the maple syrup was right the middle.

The children showed great communication skills during our group talk. The Q&A session highlighted their ability to listen to one another and contribute to a group discussion, building their confidence and sense of belonging.  By watching the liquids drip, they were practicing simple science and observation.  This activity also helped them work on their fine motor skills as they practiced rolling the sticks, and it gave them a chance to learn about Canadian history and nature.