The week has officially transitioned from winter to spring. Forest Playschool continues to explore a maple syrup week as Vermont is still in peak sugaring season. The snow fell (what appeared to be) one last time at Audubon for the season.  

This week’s animal-to-find was the northern leopard frog. The northern leopard frog has a green or greenish-brown back with darker spots on it, hence the name “leopard” frog. These creatures prey on a range of animals from insects to garter snakes. With late March approaching, leopard frogs will begin to emerge from the pond floors that they hibernated under. 

On Wednesday, Forest Playschool decided to hike down to the sugarbush to do the “gallon challenge” where the students have to find 40 gallon jugs scattered around the woods. The reason we have 40 jugs is because 40 gallons of sugar maple sap is needed to produce one gallon of maple syrup. This is because maple sap is only 3% sugar whereas syrup is around 67%; practically all of the water in the sap is boiled away via an evaporator. On our hike down, we also found an owl pellet (undigested remains of an owl’s meal including hairs, bones, and teeth.

After finding the 40 jugs and learning how much sap is needed for syrup, Wednesday’s kids got to re-hide them for Friday’s group. On Friday, Debbie (our education team manager) made a guest appearance as a teacher while Emily and I were away that day. The kids followed the same schedule of Wednesday’s group, but had a little extra time left over after the gallon challenge and got to peek inside the sugaring house to watch the sap boil in real time. 

Both classes spent the remainder of their time eating lunch back at the education barn and playing outside in the front yard. With both mud and snow available, the kids had a lot of material to work with when building their creations. 

Over the weekend, several students from Forest Playschool attended our Sugar on Snow event that we do every year to celebrate and educate about the maple sugaring process. Some of the students were seen showing their families how to tap a tree and others were on a long scavenger hunt around the sugarbush. It was cool hearing the kids relay information they’ve learned about maple sugaring over the past couple of weeks at Forest Playschool to add to their families’ Sugar on Snow experience.