Parts of a Mushroom, Alison’s Montessori

• Botany, 3-9

If you ask someone, what kind of living thing is a mushroom, chances are he or she will say it’s from “the plant family.” It is wonderful that a Montessori education introduces children to the Fungus Kingdom. They learn about the benefits of fungi, and that they are also found in different forms. The most common known fungus being the mushroom.

Alison’s Montessori Parts of a Mushroom puzzle has chosen the most iconic toadstool mushroom for its puzzle: the Amanita muscaria (the fly agaric). With such a stunning graphic, children are immediately attracted.

Materials

• The Parts of a Mushroom Puzzle contains:
• 7 wooden labeled arrows
• a control chart
• The Parts of a Mushroom Nomenclature cards contains:
• 8 labeled description cards, 8 labeled picture cards, 8 unlabeled description cards, 8 unlabeled picture and 16 labels
• a booklet of the parts
• a large color chart
• a large reproductible blackline chart
• a reproductible booklet with pictures to color and blanks to fill in.

Why we like it

• The materials are hands-on materials that we can have on the shelf to keep children motivated to learn and revisit topics.
• They provide rich information to inspire research.
• They use Latin terms.
• They provide scientific reading in the day of a growing mind.
• They offer sensorial input that enhance the learning experience.
• They are autodidactic materials with charts and cloze tests (self-assessment).
• The graphic and colors are very attractive.

How to use it

• Prior to using the puzzle Parts of a Mushroom, we studied the Fungus Kingdom. We also read books about mushrooms (Mushrooms, Fungarium).

• The children always want to disassemble the puzzle first, then reassemble it. We labeled it with the wooden arrows using the control chart at first.

• The first time, we always use the picture cards without labels with the labeled description cards (see below).

• Later, we use the labeled pictures cards with the unlabeled description cards, to increase the challenge. The cloze test (blanks) helps the child check on their knowledge, like a self-assessment.

• Finally, we used the reproductible booklet to color the parts that match the descriptions, and wrote the missing words for each description.

• Children also have the option to color and label a copy of the blackline master.

I hope this review provided you a good insight of the materials. This experience has been made possible thanks to Alison’s Montessori for trusting us with their puzzle at no cost. I write unbiased honest review, because I only review what works for us! You may find Amazon affiliate links, which are at no cost to you. We may receive a small commission, which helps with Website maintenance. Thank you for reading.

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