First graders just began a new unit learning about world cultures. This unit will tie in directly with our unit about animals and their habitats, as we will begin exploring cultures, habitats, and animal types one continent at a time. The first continent we are studying is our home, North America. Yesterday, we learned that Canada is famous for their maple syrup. In fact, the maple tree is so widely known as a symbol for Canada that the maple leaf is prominent on the Canadian flag. To learn about how maple syrup is made, we watched a video of two Canadian farmers making maple syrup. There were so many steps and new vocabulary words to learn! We learned about tapping the tree with a spile, the sap house, using evaporators to thicken the syrup, sheeting, and more! Check out the video below to see maple syrup being made!
After they felt confident understanding the steps of making maple syrup, first graders got to practice their how-to writing. We practiced so many writing skills, including starting with an attention grabber, using interesting words, using sequencing words, and of course using their best spelling, capitalization and punctuation skills. Students also used their newly-acquired vocabulary words in their writing.
After writing, students shared their writing with Ms. Ursino and co-edited. Together, we look for missing punctuation and capital letters, make sure all sentences sound right, and brainstorm what details could be added to make the story even better!
Finally, we got to try a very tasty bit of Canada – a sample of pure maple syrup from Canada! It was so exciting to taste for ourselves what we had been learning about.
