The Seasons

This activity encourages the children to reflect upon trees and weather throughout the seasons and how the landscape is impacted as a result of seasonal changes in trees.  

Educators might choose to complete this activity over a series of shorter sessions given the age of the students. 

Optional materials for this activity include paper, paint and brushes, collage, or a cut out of a tree trunk to guide the children's learning.

1. Watch a video, or section of a video, selected from the ‘Maple Sugar Videos’ included in this lesson plan.
2. Educators discuss what sugar maple trees look like by season. Prompting questions include:

“What would the ground look like?”

“What would the sky look like?”

- Using paint, collage, printing, etc., create an image centered around the tree or use photos.

- Create, or use, one image for each season.

- Students arrange their pictures in sequence of the seasons.

- Students identify when the sweet water is harvested and processed to syrup; they use their knowledge gained from the video to help with this. 

3. Guiding questions to the educator:

“How are your students ‘relating to’ the vision?”

“How are your students 'figuring it out’ (the vision)?

Physical learners are engaged in creating images through using their hands.

Emotional learners reflect upon the seasons and remember how each season 'feels' through reflecting on their feelings and memories.

Intellectual learners are engaged during the process of arranging images in sequence of the seasons.

This activity is an opportunity for the students to reflect upon their learning and thinking about sugar maple trees.

Summarize the learning with the following prompting questions:

"What do sugar maple trees look like when sweet water is being collected?"

"How should we treat these trees?"

"How do you treat your friends?"

"Do we take from our friends or do we share?"

"Could you treat the trees like your friends?"

These questions address the following:

- The Anishinaabe, like other Indigenous Peoples, have a strong relationship with Creation.

- All people need to look after the trees year-round so that sugar maple trees can provide us with the sweet water to make the syrup. 

- A greater awareness and understanding of Indigenous Knowledge can be developed, with Indigenous Knowledge being the main focus to reinforce the learning.

Guiding question for the educator: 

"How are your students ‘doing’ the vision?"

Spiritual Learners - can relate their understanding of friendship and care to their relationship with the trees. It is important for students to recognize trees and Creation as having Spirit, like us. Trees resemble us because the fall season is like us falling asleep; winter is us sleeping; spring is us waking up; and summer is us wide-awake and playing.

Emotional learners can reflect on their relationship with trees.

Tactile learners can physically explore trees outside, if the teacher holds an outside activity, or they can show their tree image(s) to a classmate, friends, or family.

Intellectual learners can relate the importance of care for the sugar maple trees to the production of maple syrup. They also can distinguish seasons by looking at the canopy, ground, and the areas surrounding each tree.

This activity is an opportunity for students to realize how trees change according to each season. The focus is on which season sweet water is collected.

Seasonal pictures of sugar maple trees are required.

Educators provide four pictures of sugar maple trees corresponding to each season; ask students what they notice about the four pictures.

Or

Using the 'Maple Syrup Videos' in this lesson plan, show the video of sweet water collecting in a bucket or use this video (see the video link in the "Materials" section below). Ask students, using their prior knowledge: In what season is sweet water collected based on what the sugar maple trees look like?

Record questions and answers for further discussions.

Guiding question for the educator:

How are your students ‘seeing it' (the vision)?

Spiritual Learners: Students can recognize their relationships with sugar maple trees through vocabulary usage. For example, educators differentiate "collecting what is provided by Land" versus "taking from the trees". Trees and Creation are our relatives and we must always demonstrate the utmost respect.

Physical Learners: Students have the opportunity to view images of sugar maple trees that correspond with each season and identify similarities or differences.

To extend the learning into different subject areas

If interested, the teacher can extend the learning in a variety of ways:

• Math
  • Data management
  • Explore differences between different trees and tree species
• Geometry
  • Shapes of tree trunks, leaves, branches
  • Collect fallen leaves and examine their shapes; notice that they are the same if you fold them in half (simple line symmetry)
• Measurement
  • Sizes of tree trunk, buds on branches, leaves
• Science
  • Look at the veins in the leaves; talk about how roots bring water from the ground through the tree to the leaves
  • Life Cycle of Trees - take students outside to record the differences of the trees in each season (perhaps taking pictures with tablets or another type of device); visit a sugar bush and taste the sweet water
  • Coniferous and Deciduous Trees - some trees like sugar maples drop their leaves in winter; others remain green