Discover Fabulous Fungi
/Discover some fabulous Fungi
It’s so exciting a take a walk in the woods on a rainy day and discover the strange mushrooms that seem to have been woken by the rain. Children seem to revel in the fact that some are poisonous and once safety rules have been establish there is so much to discover for all ages.
Very young children can recognise different colours and shapes of the fungus they find. They can imagine fairies sitting on top of a Fly Agaric or dancing around the Fairy Ring Champignon. We like to give our Autumn events a magical twist and the fungi provides the perfect back drop!
Older children can explore the life cycle of fungus by making spore prints or watching a puffball blow out its spores. We can demonstrate how the Fly Agaric got its spots or paint with the ink extracted from Shaggy Ink Caps. King Alfred’s Cakes are great for fire craft due to their ability to burn like coal.
Then there is the concept of symbiotic and parasitic relationships to explore not to mention that rumour that trees may actually communicate through the web of mycelium (the vegetative part of a fungus) underneath the woodland floor!
The Woodland Trust offer a Fungi Hunt Spotter Sheet and an Autumn Fungi Hunt Identification Sheet. Why not take a copy next time you go for a walk in the woods and see what you can find?
