life in spring

When the big black crows appear in the sky, and the ice on the lake looks black, and the woodpeckers hunt for insects in the trees, these are all signs that Spring is coming.  Ojibwe families would pack up their belongings on sleds and toboggans leaving their winter camp and head for sugarbush.  Even before they reached their destination, the family met friends and relatives who wintered in other parts of the forest, and they were on their way to the maple grove.  Many had not seen each other since the autumn before, so it was a time of renewing relationships and catching up on all the latest news.  In the sugarbush, each family had its own part of the maple grove, the same part each year, where the members lived and tapped trees for the sweet sap.  Sugar making was hard work, and lasted from four to six weeks.  The women of the family took charge of tapping the trees.  The children gathered the sap and supplied the firewood to boil the sap down to make the sugar.

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  Page Jump
1  Ojibwe Children's Song
2  Essential Question
3  Learning Goal
4  Vocabulary Words 
5  Maple Sugar –“Today you will learn about …”
6  Video – Honoring the Maple Sugar
7  Life in spring – When the black crows appear...
8  Sugar bush supplies & Slide show – Maple tree
9  Four Stages of Making Maple Sugar/Candy
10  Maple Sugar Quiz
11  Answers to Quiz
12  The Ojibwe and the Birch Tree
13  Gathering Birch Bark
14  The Many Uses of Birch Bark
15  Making Birch Bark Containers
16  Making Birch Bark Homes & Canoes
17  Animated Story – The Birch Tree
18  Birch Tree Story Questions 
19  Spring  Review
20  Essential Question Review
​21  Learning Goal Review
​22  Extension of Learning