We made a maple syrup farm in our playroom!

It’s golden. It’s sticky. It’s sweet. We love it on pancakes… but where does it come from? Do maple trees just drip this delicious stuff straight from the trunk?

This February activity is perfect for you curious learners! Read on to find out how we learned about our favorite breakfast treat and how we turned our playroom into a maple sugarbush.

It starts with the books!

The best way to teach a new concept to your little ones is through books! If you’re like us and you live in a small town, your library might not have too many books on the subject. Especially one like this that’s more obscure. My secret… YouTube read alouds! Just search for children’s books on the subject you’re learning and you’ll find what you’re looking for! Oh, and while you’re there, check out SciShow Kids. This channel has satisfied my curious learner many times! Their explanations are simple yet thorough, so it doesn’t go over her head. And they have a great one on maple syrup!

How is maple syrup made?

In addition to the stories and videos, we also learned how sugarbush farmers make maple syrup using this poster. After our lesson time we put together our mini book with words that my Kindergartener is able to read.

Dramatic Play

Here’s the fun part: our dramatic play center! My girls loved learning about maple syrup and they couldn’t wait to make their own! We set up this sugarbush in our playroom with just a few thing we had around the house, plus a printable.

First, we made some maple syrup bottles for our syrup shop using toilet paper tubes and our printable.

Then we made our tree with some green construction paper and a paper towel tube. Next we “tapped” the tree to let the sap drain and filled our bucket. (We used brown pompoms for the sap/syrup!)

After collecting our sap, it was time to boil it down. We took the bucket to our play kitchen where we boiled and stirred the sap until it became a sweet, golden, sticky syrup. After that, it was time to package our syrup for our customers. I taped off the bottom of the tube so it could hold the pompoms while my oldest set up her store.

This pretend play was so much fun and kept my little ones occupied for longer than I expected. Bug was very content boiling her syrup and filling the containers, and Peach was so excited to sell the syrup and come up with recipes to use it in. We played Maple Sugarbush over the next few days, and still have the bottles in our play kitchen!

When should you teach this lesson?

Maple sap is usually collected toward the end of February, which makes this the perfect activity for the post-Valentine’s day weeks. You know – when you’re tired of hearts but there’s a few more weeks before you can reasonably set out the spring decorations 😉

What do you think? Are you ready to give it a try?

My full maple syrup resource includes the poster and differentiated mini books pictured above, plus book recommendations and the dramatic play center! Click the link below to see the full resource on TPT.

You can sample this resource and download the dramatic play center by clicking the link below:

Have a great day and happy teaching!

-Sarah