Seasonal Cycle of a Sugar Maple Mural Project

In some ways, this year is like any other at Randolph - as the sunny days melt our snow caves and muck up the sledding hill, our attention turns to the maple trees and their precious offering of flowing sap as they emerge from dormancy. The difference this year is that we are entering a new chapter of Randolph School history, in which our maple business will be done in a place as special and beautiful as the jars of rich amber syrup we produce - The Sugar Shack!

The entire Carriage House gathered to plan a project that would celebrate this new temple of all that is maple, harness the collective creativity of Randolph elders, and represent all that we have learned about sugar maples. What we came up with is a huge collaborative painting of a sugar maple tree, with each quarter of the canvas devoted to a different season. We separated into 4 groups, each assigned a primed 2’ x 4’ board, and then proceeded to read, research and brainstorm the imagery and the text that would turn these pieces of plywood into a multigenerational Randolph masterpiece. Jobs were assigned, specialists volunteered their skills, and we all started sketching and drafting. Once we had an array of sketches and drafts to consider, we began the difficult yet important work of making decisions through critique!

Spring - 

At first, we were all focused on the nascent leaflings scrunched up in the trident-like bud clusters, with their intricate scales and pointy “rocket nose cone” shapes. What we came to appreciate is that A) we spend most of our time looking at the buds of trees in the WINTER at Randolph as a means of identifying deciduous trees without leaves and B) that flowers and pollination are the real story of spring! So, armed with newly formed knowledge gleaned from some fine Randolph and public library books, we set to work illustrating this lesser known part of a maple tree's seasonal cycle - along with a whole lot of little bees! Now, the full picture is coming more clearly into view!

Summer -

Summer is often a time of slowing down and relaxing – unless you are a sugar maple tree! As kids dug into their books to decide, “What is special about summer for a sugar maple?” they found that the maples are busy making food from sunlight, water, and CO2. Summer is a season of growth and production, as the trees are turning out ATP all season long to fuel their growth. Students learned new terms and scientific processes through their collaborative research process, such as photosynthesis, glucose, and chemical equations. At the same time, half of the group focuses on the artistic component of the project. When students are working on the summer portion of the mural, they are responding to critique, and communicating with each other to ensure there is space for everyone's contribution.

Fall - 

For a sugar maple, fall is about changing leaves and lots of seeds! Students in this group have been focusing mainly on what causes the leaves to change colors and fall off the trees. They have also learned quite a bit about the samaras (seeds) of a sugar maple, and their importance to the fall season. Students discovered that the breakdown of chlorophyll, due to the shorter days and cooler nights, leads to the production of other chemicals in the leaves that cause them to reveal the bright autumn colors, prior to them falling from the trees. We learned that anthocyanins lead to red and purple, carotenoids lead to yellows and orange, and tannins to brown. They also found that the samaras develop from the maple flowers that bloom in spring and mature through the summer before falling to the ground in September and October. The seeds then lay dormant in the soil until spring, before growing into a seedling.

Winter - 

If buds aren't the highlight of spring,  in what season do they shine? Winter! This group has the advantage of years worth of field experience with Evan, identifying our own sugar maples  for tapping on campus in the winter based on their buds. Through their research, they are reinforcing what they have learned with Evan over the years, such as identifying terminal and lateral buds, but are also gaining new knowledge. Digging deeper, the kids have discovered that the sap flows into the roots to prevent it from freezing. They have learned about the Phloem (just under the bark) that helps move sugar produced down to the roots from the leaves, and Xylem that moves around water and minerals from the roots up to the leaves. Being in the season of winter currently, this group is also able to use our surrounding environment to produce some really detailed scientific drawings on our mural, just by looking around them!

Black Hero Discoveries

We feel like Black History month begins in January when we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. He stood for so much. We listened to the song 'If I Had a Hammer' by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays and talked about the meaning of it. It's about justice, fairness, peace and standing up to laws that were not good for all people. The kids worked on color by addition sheets with three symbols that are associated with MLK Jr and movements for equality and inclusion: a hammer, a dove, and a rainbow. We brought out our Black Heroes deck of cards and read a few cards each morning. A question came up: What's a hero? The children had a journal prompt that asked them to explain what being a hero means: People who fight for change to improve the lives of others. People who help others. People who believe in kindness and love. People who are brave. A person who is a leader. The children had other questions like "Is that person still alive?" "Was I alive when she was?" "Did they live a long, long time ago?" The idea of a time line was prompted by these sorts of questions. We decided to work with each hero's date of birth, even if the work they were known for was later. Then the kiddos had to learn how to put 4-digit dates in numerical order; in other words, looking at place values beyond ones, ten, and even hundreds. Once the numerical information was set we talked about the categories each of these people could be grouped in: athletes; scientists, writers, dancers, explorers, politicians, activists, or more than one group at the same time. We are working on a key for our time line, so observers will know at a glance what that hero was known for.

We have been sharing photographs of the Sunnies' mailboxes and learning about the different ways people get mail, from baskets by their front doors to mailboxes at the end of driveways to mail rooms and P.O. boxes! Each child has been given an opportunity to come up in front of the entire class during a Gathering to tell us about how they receive mail at their house. Then, together, we engage in a conversation comparing and contrasting what we have learned about other friends' mailboxes. The Sunnies are practicing the skills of speaking in front of a group, asking and answering questions, and listening and responding to peers' comments. We have compiled all of the mailbox photos we have received so far into a book.

**You are welcome to send in a photo of your family's mailbox at any time!

Looking ahead…we have kicked off our season of maple sugaring! We were able to tap trees in small groups before we headed into our break and came back to the sap running. Using a song book made by a previous Downstairs group, we are familiarizing ourselves with the process of maple sugaring and are looking forward to engaging in the next steps together. We can’t wait to share more with you leading up to Maple Fest!