Mushroom Unit Study

I love to lead our co-op groups through unit studies inspired by our homestead and nature. I call the days i lead, “Farmschool” because of the hands on experiences and knowledge the kids absorb through immersion in hands on activities and themes inspired by our farm. I have been working on a series of herbal studies intended for family style learning, in which the family can work together to learn about the medicinal benefits of different flowers and herbs and also work creatively to incorporate these plants in areas of art, science and language arts to create a well rounded and full curriculum to use in a homeschool setting. My first unit study: Exploring Mushrooms & Fungi is now live on etsy and in my shop! Buy it here Exploring Mushrooms & Fungi

This post is intended to help you create a lesson around the unit study for single or group use. Note that group use will need to purchase a group license. Purchase the group license here Mushroom Group License.

I will break down some of the activities in the unit in a way that will flow in a group setting but can easily be modified for single student or family lessons. There are many activities in the unit study but these are just a few that can be worked into one single day lesson. I have led these lessons in my nature co op groups, I will be breaking down the day from my first person experience.

A Mushroom Unit Lesson Plan

All ages:

We started our session outdoors with a mini discussion about Mushrooms and Fungi. The kids shared their impressive facts that they already knew such as, “mushrooms live off of dead things” which helped me to expand the conversation into talking about mushrooms role of acting as a decomposer. We talked about where we would find mushrooms in the wild such as on dead logs and other decomposing organic matter, under shady areas, in wet soil and even in cow dung. We also talked about mushroom foraging safety. Do not touch and especially do not eat mushrooms in the wild unless you are 100% certain of the variety (show the mushroom identification page here). Then, with magnifying glasses in hand, we went on a mushroom hunt around the farm. We also went to collect some materials for our crafts which included: lichen covered sticks, acorn caps, flowers, rocks, turkey tail mushrooms, and other interesting small nature finds.

After our hike, we headed back indoors for a Mushroom inspired snack- Energy bites made with powdered mushrooms. This can be an all ages activity that you can do prior to the lesson or work it into the group lesson here where every child can work together to create the recipe as part of the lesson.

All Ages:
During our snack, I read the book Mushroom Rain Laura K. Zimmermann. It is a beautiful picture book that is full of easy to digest facts about different kinds of fungi and their life cycle. The end of the book has a few pages of learning facts and experiments that can stretch your mushroom unit even more if you are inspired to do that. The unit study also asks a few questions about the reading in the Lifecycle of a Mushroom module.

Continuing the discussion on the lifecycle of mushrooms, we watched a time lapse video of mushrooms growing to see the life cycle in real life. They are so soothing to watch- here is another good one.

Next we begin our study of medicinal plants and in this case mushrooms. We talk about the practical day to day uses of each plant/mushroom. I shared a few facts about medicinal mushrooms that included in my energy bites recipe: lions mane, chaga, and reishi. This is a great time to go through the information in the edible & medicinal mushroom module in the unit study.

All Ages:
During our herbal studies lessons, i ask the kids to bring a special folder or watercolor journal to keep all of for our herbal studies anatomy diagrams that we create with watercolor paints. I love these notebooks specifically. I will create worksheets based on what ever herbal medicinal plant we are studying and the kids with label and watercolor paint their worksheets to add to their folder. The mushroom identification worksheet is an example of the image the children will watercolor and label. You can also print the image from the art with mushrooms module on watercolor paper and paint with watercolors on it. I like to think that over the years they will have a beautiful hand made textbook of sorts of all the herbal studies units we have learned together. If you want to expand the lesson you can read a guided tutorial on how to watercolor a mushroom painting by reading the book Watercolor With Me In the Forest by Dana Fox.

All ages with parents assistance:
The last part of our day was spent creating a craft using our found nature objects. A beautiful mushroom Terrarium craft! This was definitely an advanced craft and I had to help quite a bit but the one on one time required during the craft was really nice also to get to spend time with each of our co-op kiddos. The craft required some preparation before hand and some extra materials that I bought on Amazon such as the terrarium ornaments. Here is how we made them:

Materials Needed:

-Tangerine peels (halved and dried- i did this in advance)

-Stem of mushroom (I made mine with tin foil and felted wool from our sheep since I had it, but i was thinking you can also use pasta, wine bottle corks, sticks, air dried clay, cinnamon sticks)

-Acorn Caps (foraged)

-Lichen covered sticks/Moss (foraged)

-Turkey Tail Mushrooms (foraged)

-Dried flowers (harvested from our garden)

-Mini decorative rocks (i bought at Michaels for $3 onsale, but can be foraged at the beach or creek)

-Terranium bulbs (ordered on amazon to use for both co-op groups and for future crafts)

-Glue stick and glue guns

-Acrylic paint and paint brushes

Start by Prep “Mushroom tops” by painting the dry tangerine peel and acorn caps with any color paint (we used reds and browns). Add little paint dots once the cap is dry. Next, open your terrarium bulb in half and sprinkle in a few handfuls of pebbles as a base for the mushrooms to sit. Once the mushroom caps are dry, use hot glue to glue the caps to the stems- big one for the tangerine peel and a small twig for the acorn cap. Arrange mushrooms on your lichen covered twig using hot glue to glue everything in place. Add any other things you may like like flowers, turkey tail mushrooms, moss, etc… Put your stick inside the half terrarium with the pebbles and close the lid. Add more pebbles as needed. The step by step tutorial is in the art with mushrooms unit along with other fun mushroom activities.

Preschool-kinder age:

Another fun activity I offered the younger kids was a sencory bin filled with felted mushrooms I crated by hand but I also found some felted mushrooms on amazon that would work well and this book on how to felt veggies that you can also add to the bin to create a fun “farmers market” activity which I also share in the art with mushrooms module.

The Mamachka’s Farmschool Exploring Mushrooms & Fungi unit study is full of many other great worksheets, science experiments, recipes, and language arts activities that you can thread into this lesson or create another whole day of lessons surrounding the fascinating top of edible and medicinal mushrooms. I hope you enjoy and learn alongside your kiddos.

In Gratitude,

Sofia Howard