Tree Tapping

This is a story that tells of the origins of sweet water. It can be shared with students as a foundation before gathering sweet water or tapping trees.

Depending on the age of the students, they or the educator reads Keepers of the Earth - Nanaboozo and the Maple Tree.

As a class, students watch related parts of the videos "The Trees" and "Collecting the Maple Sap" to explore how maple trees are identified and what the process is for harvesting sweet water, using both the traditional and modern techniques.   

Educators use prompt questions to stimulate thinking and discussion:

"What do you notice?"  "What do you wonder?"

Guiding question for the educator:

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

Spiritual learners - Sharing a Nanaboozo story about the gift of maple syrup helps students in building and recognizing their relationship with the natural world.

Emotional learners - Can relate to how Nanaboozo felt when people were lying on the ground.

Physical learners - The videos provide a visual representation of how to identify sugar maple trees and how to gather sweet water.

Intellectual learners - Can compare and contrast different techniques of gathering sweet water.

Through using our physical bodies, or other non-standard units of measurement, this activity explores how to determine when a tree is mature enough to be tapped.

Take the students outside (on school property) to explore both processes: the hugging (Indigenous ways) and diameter measurement (Settler ways).

1. Hugging the trees:

How do we know if a tree is mature enough to tap?  Settler knowledge uses a diameter of 30 cm, whereas Indigenous Peoples believe one hug means one tap.

2. Measure trees using items like string before returning to the classroom and figuring out the measurement.

3. Have students work with their assigned tree and 'form a relationship' with their assigned tree. Inquiry-based learning: Direct students to learn everything about their tree(s) before measuring the tree.

Extension:

Look at a cross section of a tree - either real, printed, or digital. Count the rings to gain an appreciation for age. Students will be amazed at the age a tree needs to be to be old enough to tap. 

Guiding questions to the educator:

"How are your students ‘relating to’ the vision?"

"How are your students ‘figuring it (the vision) out’?"

Spiritual and emotional learners - Hugging a tree allows students to reflect upon the importance of our relationship with trees. Students will be encouraged to learn that all people have a physical relationship with trees and Creation.

Physical learners - This activity brings students outside to interact with trees and other tactile objects that teachers can bring into the classroom, such as a cross section of a tree, an tree log, and/or images of trees (showing growth rings) via the Internet. 

Intellectual learners - can explore the relationship between the two measurement systems. Intellectual challenges here may include helping students recognize/learn that there are different ways to determine when trees are mature and that there is no "right way".

This activity provides time for students to consolidate their learning and reflect on the lesson.

Educators guide a discussion with the students to relect upon their learning, using leading questions such as:

"What is the significance of holding trees or maintaining a physical relationship with trees and Creation?"

"What does this practice tell us about Anishinaabe Peoples' relationship with Creation?"

"What actions can we do today to take care of trees long-term to ensure they grow old enough to be tapped?"

"Through using non-standard units of measurement (such as in this activity), when is it 'okay' to tap a maple tree?"

Guided question to the educator:

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

Spiritual learners - reflect upon the gift of maple syrup. The goal is for students to learn and recognize that trees have spirits and are living beings. This is an opportunity for students to form a strong relationship with the natural world in which their school is located. 

Physical and Emotional learners - reflect upon our relationship with trees. Students reflect on their emotional and physical learning from the relationship they built with their assigned tree 'buddy' and through measuring trees.

Intellectual learners - reflect upon the different ways people can determine when trees are mature enough to begin tapping in order to collect sap or sweet water.

This is a list of optional extension activities and cross-curricular links that may be explored to extend learning in Science and Technology, Social Studies, and Language.

Note: The numbering below corresponds to the related ‘Expectation’ found in the Ontario Curriculum Guidelines at: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/Curriculum/elementary/grade1.html

A. Science and Technology (2007)

Grade 1 'Understanding Life Systems'

Overall Expectations:

1. Investigate needs and characteristics of plants and animals, including humans;
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the basic needs and characteristics of plants and animals, including humans.

Specific Expectations:

2.3 Investigate and compare the physical characteristics of a variety of plants and animals, including humans (e.g., some plants produce flowers and some do not; most plants have roots; some animals have two legs, while others have four; all animals have sense organs);

2.4 Investigate the physical characteristics of plants (e.g., basic parts, size, shape, colour) and explain how they help the plant meet its basic needs (e.g., roots anchor the plant and help provide the plant with food and water; some plants have brightly coloured flowers to attract bees), using a variety of methods and resources (e.g., direct observation of live plants in the  classroom and in the schoolyard, prior knowledge, personal experience, diagrams and/or charts);

3.6 Identify what living things provide for other living things (e.g., trees produce the oxygen that other living things breathe; plants such as tomatoes and apple trees and animals such as cows and fish provide food for humans and for other animals; a tree stump provides a home for a chipmunk; porcupines chew off the tips of hemlock limbs, providing food for deer in winter).

Grade 1 ‘Understanding Matter and Energy: Energy in our Lives’

Overall Expectation:

3. Demonstrate an understanding that energy is something that is needed to make things happen, and that the sun is the principal source of energy for the earth.

Specific Expectations:

3.1 Demonstrate an understanding that energy is what makes the things that humans and animals do or see happen;

3.2 Demonstrate an understanding that the sun, as the earth’s principal source of energy, warms the air, land, and water; is a source of light for the earth; and makes it possible to grow food.

B. Social Studies (2018)

Grade 2

Overall Expectation:

B1. Application: describe some similarities and differences in the ways in which people in two or more communities in different parts of the world meet their needs and have adapted to the location, climate, and physical features of their regions.

Specific Expectations:

B1.2 Describe some of the ways in which two or more distinct communities have adapted to their location, climate, and physical features;

B1.3 Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of sustainability in people’s interrelationship with their natural environment and of some of the consequences of sustainable and/or non-sustainable actions.

C. Language

- procedural writing for tapping a tree