Sharing Time

James Shares his Nature Items from Brule

I'm wondering, James, why did you choose to bring these items in? - Allison 

"so you would learn about the forest"           - James

Hugh: I already know about the forest because my dog loves the forest
Lily: me too!
Cate: I do also!
James: Well so the teachers would
Hugh: It’s really for the teachers ​

"there's two different kinds of pine cone trees"

​James: This is a white pine cone. No that's a red...there's two different kinds of pine cone trees. This is one that's from a red pine tree
Tommy: What's a red pine tree?
James: It's kind of red but not really. The other one I'll show you [takes the pine cone out of the bag to show the friends]. You see how they're red there? That's a white pine cone. Now where is that sweet fern?​

James: You can crunch it up, and you can smell it, and it smells kind of sweet
Hugh: Can I crunch it up?
James: Yeah but I don't think it'll smell still
Hugh: oh it smells like peppers:
All the children ask: Can I smell it please?
James: I have some more sweet fern in here too
All the children ask: Can I try smelling it?
Hugh: let's see what this is…[looking in the bag]
James: that's a maple leaf
Caleb: That also smells really good!

"Now this is a spruce..."

James: Now this is a spruce
Hugh: What are Spruces?
James: These are kind of trees that stay I think, green
Hugh: Yeah, yeah they loose like things right in front of my thing, they are the same...we have the same kind of leaves in front of my house, all pointy...it
Caleb: an everwood
James: Now a Balsam has them all around
Caleb: Can I try smelling it?
James: It doesn't have a smell
Caleb:  Now let's see because the maple leaf had a smell
James: Here's a Balsam [taking it out of the bag]
Caleb: This smells good
James: I've done something really funny like brush my hair with it. It's really funny
Caleb: it smells
James: You can use it if you want to brush your hair. This is another Maple Leaf.
Caleb: This one doesn't smell and this one does [comparing the two leaves]
​James: No wait it does smell, just smell them James

​Caleb asks, "Can I try smelling it?"

Elena asks, ​"what's a critter?"

"It's like an animal, like a small animal that is like a worm" - James

James: This is a maple leaf, see the holes here, here, and here? Those are from critters eating them!
Caleb: The meteorites were heading to Earth to eat them? I want to eat them!
Elena:  What's a critter?
James: It's like an animal, like a small animal that is like a worm
Caleb: [laughs] I thought when you said critter you said  like a meteorite like that kind of crater!
James: That is a red pine cone, it's not a redwood one
Hugh: It's like kind’ve like reddish greenish right? It's not really red
Tegan: I wanna smell
Elena: Smell [offers to friends]
Abby: It smells like peppers
Cate: It does smell like peppers, aaahhh
Elena: Smell this [offers to friends]
Melanie: It smells like the woods to me
Will: Pepper smells like pepper!!

Melanie asks,  "where did you get these from?"

Hugh asks, "did you catch um, any scuffs or something?

Cate asks, "have you ever caught a fish before?"

"Now this pine cone is stronger than the white pinecone.
Listen to this [bangs the pine cone into the board]...it doesn't break." - James

​James:  Brule, it's in Wisconsin. It's a nice place, it's very quiet. There's a nice river…
Hugh: Did anyone ever really go to Brule?
James: No, it's very quiet. But a lot of people... so it's not quiet in the river, and there's tons and tons of fish.
Hugh: Did you go fishing in that River?
James: I do, I did this year.
Hugh: Did you catch um, any scups or something?
James: No, I didn't catch any scups, I don't even know what's scups are.
Melanie: Like little tiny fish?
Hugh: Big, flappy fish they are.
Cate: Have you ever caught a fish before James? Have you ever caught a catfish this big [holds arms out wide]?
James: I've never caught any fish. So, let me tell you the kind of fish in this river
[Cate: I caught a fish before]
James: There's some different kind of trout. There's a brown trout, rainbow trout, and normal trout...which if you catch a salmon, the salmon are not related to the Brule River so you can keep a salmon. But it has to be a certain line. Like a certain...
Melanie: Like a certain size or kind?
James: Yeah a size or kind. Now, there's some fish you cannot eat in the Brule River. Like, I think you can eat a brown trout. Um, and I have reeled a rainbow trout in, and it was pretty hard. Cuz I've never…. at that point I had never reeled any fish in, and I didn't know which way was in or out. Reeling towards the boat house was in and out. Do you have something to say [Hugh]?
Hugh: So can you eat the rainbow scup?
James: I don't think so, but you could eat salmon and brown trout.
Hugh: I think can you eat the rainbow trout
James: I think so but I'm not sure
Hugh: I'm pretty sure you can
Cate: You can ask your mom?
James: Well, Poppy knows alot about the river and another guy that Poppy knows. And he can even go up the Rapids at night and know where all the rocks are without a flashlight.
Cate: What the heck? How does he know that?!
James: He's just really good about the river. Now this pine cone is stronger than the white pine cone. Listen to this [bangs the pine cone into the board]...it doesn't break. But this one, it breaks. You see that? [pointing to the debri], that's from this one.
Tommy: What does that mean?
James: Try that one [Tommy], you see it doesn't break…
[Tommy tries banging the pine cones into the board]
Cate: Can I try? I know how to break this [bangs the cone]. This one is unbreakable!
[all the friends want to try]
Melanie: So is that pinecone more durable?
James: Yeah, that one is more fragile.
Melanie: So maybe we need to be more careful with the fragile one, the white pine
Hugh: Where's the fragile pinecone?

Melanie asks, "was there anything else you were thinking about bringing in?"

James: You have to be super smart and super duper careful [to catch a fish] and once you trick…I think it’s a trout…a huge trout lives under our dock…and once I fell down on the dock…and I was stepping backwards…and went to look and BOOM and just fell into the dock and Mommy and poppy saw a fish wake and I wonder if I scared the fish that was under our dock! 
​
Cate: I caught a catfish before! So first I had to trick it by getting it onto my hook and then it thought that it was a worm! It's better to use a real worm than a….

James: Yes, like um, sap and other stuff. But I do have some sap on here….the white stuff is sap.
Melanie: And you mentioned a mushroom, but I didn't hear what you said about the mushroom?
James: Well, there are some mushrooms that you can eat and some you can't
Caleb: Yeah, because a lot of them are poisonous.
Cate: Yeah I know what mushrooms are. I poked these mushrooms...I see mushrooms when I go to the golf course and in the park.

Masie: Where did he get that supplies?
James: Well before we left, we didn't have that much time, but we thought about going on a canoe trip, but we couldn't. And it was very cold out that day. But before we went down to the river, we went really fast around the [    ] property and ours and got that stuff. So, it's good stuff.

James has even more to share... "Maybe I can go another day after Abby so you can share that question!"