Biology – 6-9
How fascinating are fungi? It might depend on the materials at hand. Our little toddler has been very passionate about mushrooms since we read a French book on “champignons,” and he especially likes everything Amanita (the poisonous ones of course!)
After studying for weeks the Animal Kingdom, we decided it was a good time to explore our long-expected Fungus Kingdom chart from In-Print. We absolutely love the In-Print materials. They are clear, simple, informational, colorful, realistic, and they come with full instructions.
The materials we used for this self-exploration were mostly the Fungus Kingdom and the 3-part mushrooms cards from In-Print as well. The 3-part cards don’t have the information behind or on separate cards. They are, however, provided on the little brochure (see picture below). I will probably make copies on cardstock paper, and laminate them as my child is too old for picture-label matching. Another interesting resource has been the Chinese Boxes from ETC Montessori. It helps children see commonalities between kingdoms through thorough illustrated classification. Each disc contains a short description perhaps more accessible to an Upper Elementary student.
Speaking of my learner, you know she’s a Montessori kid when she uses her knowledge on mushrooms to create “Who am I?” cards. She asked if that was creative work…of course! She even laminated and cut them.
For book references, we went with a DK edition “Mushrooms.” We also have some French books with simple information and graphics. We are looking forward to Welcome to the Museum “Fungarium,” which is on pre-order on Amazon, and very reasonably priced. This book should add an artistic dimension to our learning. A wooden puzzle of the parts of a mushroom is also on its way from Ireland, kids just love puzzles. Montessori Print Shop has 3-part cards with descriptions on mushroom parts, if interested. You can also use this free printable on parts of a mushroom that can be colored, or printed and laminated.
We have a few projects in mind: growing mushrooms, doing the spores transfer to paper, painting more mushrooms on rocks for the Spring, and maybe sew a mushroom with felt using blanket stiches.
What other resources or projects do you suggest? Please share! 🙂
Montessori Second Plane of Development 
Fungi is just fun! I agree with you. 💕
They are so much fun to look at under a microscope too-it might be something you may want to add the the children’s learning.
Here are some chillaxscience extensions:
1- Are mushrooms light sensitive? Are they phototropic? Grow a mushroom in light and one in darkness.
2-At what rate do mushrooms decompose? How does it compare to the rate of an orange (for example)?
3-How have fungi historically been used across continents?
4-Who “discovered” fungi? How is it used as medicine?
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I love all these ideas, thank you!
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