Checking the sugar maple tree for spring was really different this year!  Our class kept checking for the leaves to emerge in April with much disappointment until the end of the month.  Temperatures continued to stay lower in early spring this year, so the leaves didn’t fully begin their emergence on the sugar maple tree until the beginning of May!  Students noted the sparseness of leaves and small leaf size in their journal entries for their spring observations.

Again, since this is the second year of data collection, we were able to compare and contrast last year’s sugar maple tree to this year’s sugar maple tree through the photographs. The photographs were taken on the date that the leaves were beginning to come out on at least half of the sugar maple tree each year. As you can see from the photographs, the leaves are starting their growth at approximately the same volume, but again, this year’s leaves took an extra two weeks to begin to come out of the buds.

Sugar Maple Tree on April 17, 2017

Sugar Maple Tree on May 1, 2018