MERRYLEA SUGARBUSH
PRE AND POST TRIP ACTIVITIES
Information included:
Tree and leaf picture
Crossword puzzle
Pre and post trip activity suggestions
Bibliography of books on sugaring
Ask students to study the shapes of the Maple leaf and tree and discuss these with them. Ask upper grade students to work in small groups to complete the crossword puzzle about their future Sugar Bush trip. Lower grade students can work this with the teacher as a class activity. Students who complete this can color the "maple tree and leaf sheet" enclosed. They need to color the bark of the tree dark gray and draw in the long vertical lines found on the Sugar Maple bark. The Sugar Maple leaf turns bright red and yellow in autumn. Ask them to describe the shape of the leaf in full sentences when they have colored their maple leaf.
Be sure to have the children work with the pages Dr . Yoder has included on the Merry Lea Web site at www.goshen.edu/merrylea. They will enjoy predicting the sap flow according to the weather of the day they plan to visit.
Call Merry Lea (260-799-5869) with questions or comments regarding these pre and post activities. We welcome your feedback.
PRETRIP ACTIVITIES FOR YODER SUGAR BUSH TRIP (and some related post activities)
Students are more eager to invest their attention and energy in learning at The Yoder Sugar Bush if they have experienced a few readiness activities before they visit. Please take time to maximize this experience with your class.
Written responses and art projects from pre and post activities may be bound in a Sugar Bush Notebook, which can provide review of key standards and concepts as well as happy memories of this adventure.
Students can cut out sugar maple leaves in fall colors for the cover. Here are activities and suggestions you can adapt to your grade level and time allotment.
Imagine your trip to The Sugar Bush. Answer these questions with your PREDICTIONS (discuss what a prediction is). Answer in column on left side of one page.
What might you see on this field trip?
What is the most unusual sight you might view?
What is one sound you expect to hear at the Bush?
Use three describing words/adjectives that show what what you expect to feel
on this trip. (For example-"I might feel cozy inside the Sugarhouse.")
What might you get to taste on this trip?
What might you smell?
*Follow up as a post trip activity with answers and descriptions of what they actually did see, hear, smell, etc. (Ask them to describe or illustrate each sense used at the Sugar Bush.) This can be in a second column on the right of the same page.
Pre--Ask students to draw or write a paragraph describing what they might see or experience at the Sugar Bush.
*Post--After the trip, students can create an illustration, poem, or paragraph about what they actually experienced. How were the two alike, different?
After students have speculated on what this trip might be like, read a book such as At Grandpa's Sugar Bush or another one from the enclosed bibliography, to help students anticipate this adventure.
POST TRIP ACTIVITIES
Have students update their Sugar Bush notebooks.
Answer the prediction questions with what they actually experienced. Be sure answers are in complete sentences.
How Accurate Were Your Predictions?
1. Did you see what you had expected at The Sugar Bush?
2. What actually was the most unusual thing you saw at Sugar Bush?
3. Did you hear the sounds you expected there? What other interesting sound did you hear while there?
4. Did the feelings you expected to experience happen? What is a feeling you had which you didn't expect?
5. What did you taste on the trip?
6. Was your sense of smell prediction what you expected?
Sequencing activity-
Ask students to sequence the following words according to what they learned and did at the Sugar Bush: (Teacher, please mix these up.) sap, spiles, cold, warm, evaporator pan, steam, buckets, fire wood, maple trees, settlers, tapping, syrup, sugar, sugarhouse, holding tanks, sumac, syrup, sugar, pancakes.
Students may write a story about their Sugar Bush adventure after the words are sequenced. They can write the story of their trip, a fictional story about someone long ago (Native American child, or settlers involved in sugaring), or a poem. If time allows, ask them to illustrate their story, or a favorite part of their day.
PARTIAL
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON MAPLE SUGARING
(http://www.massmaple.org/biblio.html)
Brown, Vinson. Reading the Woods. Harrisburg. Pa. Stackpole Books. 1969. Good forest reference.
Caduto, Michael 1. and Joseph Bruchac. Keepers of the Earth. Golden Colo: Fulcrum, Inc. 1989, Has a chapter on Native Americans and maple,
Fellows, Myrtie, Maple Syrup the Way We Do It. Brattleboro. VT: The Stephen Greene Press, 1972. Story of a sugaring family with photos.
Follet, Muriel and Schofield, Clifford, A Drop in the Bucket. Stephen Day Press, The story of a farm maple season, illustrated.
Gamey, Margaret. At Grandpa's Sugarbush, published 1998, Great children's story for ages 4-8.
Gemming, Elizabeth, Maple Harvest: The Story of Maple Sugar. New York, New York: Cavan, Mecca and Geoghegan, Inc, 1976,
Hays, Wilma and R. Vernon Hays. Foods the Indians Gave Us, New York: Ives Washburn, Inc, 1975. Has informative entry on maple, pg, 91-92.
Lasky, Kathryn. Sugar Time, New York: McMillan Publishing Co, Inc, 1983. Wonderful story, Great photos.
Lawrence, James M, and Martin, Rux. Sweet Maple - Life. Love & Recipes from the Sugarbush. Shelburne, VT. Chapters Publishing Ltd, 1993, The best overall book on maple sugaring.
Lewis, Diane. The Maple Harvest Book, New York: Stein and Day Publishers, 1977. Good introduction and recipes,
Mann, Rink. Backyard Sugarin', The Countryman Press, Woodstock, VT, 1976. An excellent "how to" book for the hobby and small-scale producer.
Nearing, Helen and Scott. The Maple Sugar Book, New York: Schocken, 197O, Very comprehensive. Widely available, Excellent reference,
North American Maple Syrup Producer's Manual, Ohio State University Extension & The North American Maple Syrup Council, 1996, Columbus. Ohio, The Producer's comprehensive and up-to-date "how-to" manual. The best technical manual available.
Perrin, Noel. Amateur Sugar Maker. Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1972. Good literary, personal study, with drawings. Highly recommended,
Selsam, Millicent. Maple Tree. New York: William Morrow and Company. 1968. Photos and text explain the life of a Norway maple tree, Processes are same for Sugar Maple,
Watson, Nancy D, Sugar on Snow. New York, NY: Viking: Press, 1964, Children's story tells basic process. Illustrated,