West Forest students bring book to life

From staff reports

The third and fourth graders at West Forest Elementary recently finished reading the book “Miracles on Maple Hill” which was written in 1957 by Virginia Sorenson.

It takes place near Edinboro. The students have been learning about making maple syrup and one day, after reading a chapter named “Pancakes,” they ate pancakes topped with real maple syrup.

In order to bring the book to life, the students went on a field trip and got a chance to tour the real “Hurry Hill” and visit a museum dedicated to the book.

They listened to a presentation from Jan Woods about the evaporator and how it works.

While there, the students got to hold the actual Newbery Medal given to the author of the book and sample some foods made from maple syrup.

Students also saw the “sugar house” with various artifacts from the book. As part of their lesson, the students chose one of their favorite scenes from the book and created a diorama.