We had the opportunity last week to visit Kensington Metro Park to get some maple syrup schoolin'. We met up with our friends, the Snyder family, and had an absolute blast learning all of the interesting facts and history that go along with collecting and making maple sap into maple syrup. After the lesson, we were treated to a wonderfully yummy pancake dinner - topped off, of course, with 100% real maple syrup that was collected right from Kensington's Sugar Maples. It was a fun AND educational experience - gotta love it!
Learning about the trees
Even the youngest ones enjoyed being outside for the lesson
The naturalist demonstrates how the trees make the sugar for the sap
The youngest explorer in our group
We discussed different ways to identify sugar maples - the leaves (on the ground at this time of year), bark and branches
Maple sap becomes maple syrup in this little "shack"
Kids + sugar = fun at the Sugar Shack
Ethan learns about the process of boiling the sap down into syrup
Kevin just couldn't get over how wonderful it smelled!
Ethan's enjoying the smells, too!
Elijah watches those water molecules escape from the sap - the process in progress
Looking for the perfect tree to tap
Found it!
Inserting the spile
Discovering first hand how the Native Americans tapped for syrup
Inside for a little art & crafts . . .
. . . and a little Maple Syrup Word Searching
Anticipating our pancake dinner!
2 comments:
Looks like a lot of fun and a bit cold. did you get any syrup to take for use at home?
We did this program several years ago. My kids loved it!
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