mushroom

I have a free life cycle of a mushroom worksheet and a fun edible meringue mushrooms activity. Also, you’ll love this Fun Hands-on Free Mushroom Unit Study and Kids Learning Activities.

Because the growth of mushrooms can be hard for students to understand, illustrating a mushroom life cycle is best.

For example, mushrooms are not plants because they don’t have chlorophyll and can’t use the sun for energy.

Too, mushrooms don’t have seeds.

Instead of seeds, mushrooms have spores which drop from their gills.

Mushrooms are a type of fungus. There are many kinds of fungi like molds and crusts.

And mycelium is similar to the roots of plants.

Grab a few fun activities below, share some of the fascinating facts, and enjoy nibbling on your own delicious meringue mushrooms to “cap” off your study.

Also, look at more mushroom facts.

5 Mushroom Facts

1. Mushrooms produce Vitamin D when exposed to ultraviolet light, but they don’t need the light to grow.
2. Mushrooms grow in all 50 states, even Alaska.
3. Fungi are the largest life form on earth, the mycelium grows underground for miles.
4. Mushrooms are actually the fruit of a fungus; they are a product of the fungi growing underground and are a very small part of the plant.
5. Some mushrooms glow in the dark, they have light-emitting compounds called luciferins that glow and attract insects.

Also, look at some of these mushroom resources and books.

Next, look at more hands-ion mushroom activities.

More Mushroom Activities

• Grow your own mushrooms at home to get a close look at the process from start to finish.

• Color the mushroom with colored pencils or crayons, older children can fill out the blank one to label the anatomy.

• Take a walk and see what mushrooms you can spot; they love dark damp pasture or woodland areas.
• Nature Anatomy has several lovely, illustrated pages on mushrooms’ names, their lifecycle, and interesting facts about them.

• Painting a watercolor of a favorite mushroom or one that you found in the wild is a great learning activity. Carry watercolors and paper on your next nature walk and see what you can discover and recreate through art.

• I love to add beautiful art to our walls that also has an educational use to it like this vintage mushroom print.

• Fun Hands-on Free Mushroom Unit Study and Kids Learning Activities

Life Cycle of a Mushroom Worksheet Meringue Mushroom Activity

You will need:

• 3 large eggs
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp. semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Cinnamon or cocoa powder
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• Oreos-optional

First, preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Line the baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Separate eggs, adding only the whites to a medium-sized mixing bowl.

Add in cream of tartar and mix on high until foamy and soft peaks have formed.

Incorporate sugar a little at a time until it is all mixed in.

Continue to whip on high for 4-5 minutes until the mixture becomes thick, and shiny, and forms stiff peaks.

This just means that when you lift the beater up or scoop it with a spoon it holds its shape well without dripping.

Add just a bit of cocoa powder or cinnamon and mix quickly to add a little color to your mushrooms.

Take a quart-sized sandwich bag and place it in a cup with the top rolled open over the sides.

Scoop the meringue mixture into the bag until about ⅗ of the way full and squeeze the mixture down into one corner.

How to Make a Fun Meringue Mushroom Activity

If you have and are familiar with using a piping bag you can just use your favorite bag and tip.

Snip off a small corner of the bag with scissors.

Hold above the filling and squeeze the mixture out the hole you cut into little round mushroom caps.

Then make some strips for the stalk. Don’t worry about making them perfect, they are natural and unique, and we are going to trim them a bit later.

Be sure you make an equal number of each, so you have a complete mushroom.

Wet your finger and smooth ridges and points on them.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour. Turn off the oven and allow them to sit for another 30 minutes.

Remove and allow them to cool completely.

While waiting for them to cool you can crush some Oreos up in a bag with a rolling pin or toss them in your food processor to create a dirt bed for the mushrooms.

Sprinkle on your plate.

Dust the mushroom caps with cinnamon or cocoa powder for a little texture and color.

Cut one end of the mushroom stalk to leave a flat even surface to attach to the cap.

Melt chocolate chips in the microwave until smooth.

Dip mushroom cap bottoms into the chocolate and press the stalk into them.

Pop in the fridge to harden for a few minutes.

Add the mushrooms to the dirt and enjoy a tasty and educational snack while you learn about the fascinating life cycle and anatomy of this fungus.

How to Get the Free Life Cycle of a Mushroom Worksheets

Lastly, I have four mushroom notebooking pages or worksheet.

The first two pages are the mushroom life cycle. One page is labeled (or with the answers) and the other page is unlabeled.

And the second set of pages is the mushroom anatomy. The same for it too, one page is labeled (or with the answers) and the other page is unlabeled.

Now, how to grab the free mushroom notebooking pages. This is a subscriber freebie.

That means when you sign up to follow me, you get access to my subscribers library and this freebie.

 1) Sign up on my list.
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