I had a great day yesterday. My parents took my brother and me to the sugar shack. We go there every spring.

My dad said that the weather would be perfect to go to the Sugar Shack. For a week there were sunny days and cold, frosty nights. Dad said this kind of weather would get the sap running in the maple trees. He was right!

There were red, silver, and sugar maple trees as far as I could see, and most of them had little wooden buckets hanging on them. We collected the watery sap that dripped out of the maple trees through spigots bored into the tree trunks. This is the old-fashioned way. People in many other places use tubes and vacuum pumps to collect sap now.

Then we went to a large campfire in the snow. The woman poured the sap we collected into a big, iron pot. A man was stirring and stirring. We watched the sap cook. Slowly it got thicker and darker. It was turning into delicious, sweet-smelling maple syrup.

When it was ready, we sat at a picnic table outside and ate pancakes, sausages, ham, baked beans, and scrambled eggs with our maple syrup. My parents put maple syrup in their coffee, too! We ate for as long as we could. Then we went for a long walk in the maple forest.

I. Word List

sugar shack: a building in which maple sap is boiled to make maple syrup

sap: sticky liquid that comes out of trees

spigot: a device for controlling the flow of liquid

II. Circle the things the family ate at the sugar shack.

baked beans

bacon

sausages

corned beef

ham

fried eggs

waffles

pancakes

scrambled eggs

III. Find words in the reading that have the same meaning as these words.

1. small: l _ _ _ _ _ 5. gathered: c _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

2. correct: r _ _ _ _ 6. method: w _ _

3. excellent: p _ _ _ _ _ _ 7. pails: b _ _ _ _ _ _

4. ready: d _ _ _ 8. tasty: d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

IV. Answer the following questions.

1. What kind of trees are used to make maple syrup?

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2. What was hanging on the trees? Why?

___________________________________________________________.

3. What did the writer's parents put in their coffee?

___________________________________________________________.

4. What did they do after they ate their food?

___________________________________________________________.

5. Does this sound like a fun day? Why or why not?

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