Maple Sugaring, A Tradition At New Canaan Country School

From New Canaan Country School: Every winter, Country School students in Beginners through Grade 9 collect maple sap and boil it down to syrup in the school’s Sugar Shack. This year students helped collect a total of 300 gallons of sap from maple trees all over the school’s 75-acre campus.

Woodshop Teacher Chris Lawler has been teaching the sugaring process for the last 25 years. The unit combines science, history and math. Students learn about the early history of the school’s campus as a working farm and how the syrup production hasn’t changed much in the last 500 years. They learn about the physiology of trees, how to use the proper equipment and how to calculate density and temperature.

“What I love most is watching them learn from nature and actually learn how to make something from nature,” said Mr. Lawler.

New Canaan Country School is a co-ed, independent day school for students in Pre-K “Beginners” (ages 3 & 4) through Grade 9. Located at 635 Frogtown Rd in New Canaan, the school serves families living throughout Westchester and Fairfield counties. For more information about the school, please visit: www.countryschool.net.

Photos: 1. New Canaan Country School fourth graders enjoy a cup of warm maple sugar tea, made of the sap collected from maple trees found around the school’s 75-acre campus; 2. A toast to the arrival of spring; 3. New Canaan Country School fourth graders boil sap in the school’s Sugar Shack, an annual ritual; 4. Woodshop Teacher Chris Lawler sharing the finished product with a group of fourth grade students; 5. New Canaan Country School Woodshop Teacher Chris Lawler boiling sap in the school’s Sugar Shack, a time-honored tradition. Photo credit: New Canaan Country School