Activities

Learning goals: To inspire curiosity about the natural world, and teach safety in wild spaces 

Below are example activities and suggested age groups, though you’re never too old to enjoy mushroom hunting!

Please direct your questions and feedback to info@iowamushroom.org.

Outdoor

All outdoor activities should include training to recognize poison ivy!

Mushroom Scavenger Hunt (Preschool and up)

Materials: baskets or small paper bags with handles, magnifying glasses

• Have preschoolers search a designated area (e.g. forest, school grounds) for a variety of mushrooms (with or without the aid of pictures/photos to guide them)

  • Use magnifying glasses to look at mushrooms up close

  • Note: It is safe to pick and handle all fungi (problems only occur when poisonous mushrooms are ingested)

  • Note: As mushrooms represent the fruiting body of the organism, there is no harm done to the organism (mycelium) when picking 

• Collect mushrooms in baskets or paper bags to bring back to the classroom or arrange on a table outside

Book Reading (Preschool and up)

• Read an illustrated book about fungi (to be read in the field before the scavenger hunt). Some great examples include:

  • Mushroom Rain by Laura Zimmermann

  • Fungi Grow by Maria Gianferrari

  • The Mushroom Fan Club by Elise Gravel

• Discuss the importance of fungi 

  • They are just as important as plants and animals (as its own kingdom)

  • Great recyclers, etc.

Mushroom Foray (Middle School and up)

Materials: baskets or small paper bags with handles

• Discuss the importance of fungi 

  • They are just as important as plants and animals (as its own kingdom)

  • Great recyclers

  • Symbiotic relationships with plants/trees

• Have students search a designated area (e.g. forest, school grounds) for a variety of mushrooms

  • Note: It is safe to pick and handle all fungi (problems only occur when poisonous mushrooms are ingested)

  • Note: As mushrooms represent the fruiting body of the organism, there is no harm done to the organism (mycelium) when picking 

• Collect mushrooms in baskets or paper bags to bring back to the classroom or arrange on a table outside

Mushroom Bingo (Middle School and up)

Materials: Printed Bingo cards showing pictures of a variety of fungi that one might find (e.g. gilled mushrooms, polypores, puffballs, cup fungi, coral fungi, etc.), pencils

• Discuss the importance of fungi 

  • They are just as important as plants and animals (as its own kingdom)

  • Great recyclers

  • Symbiotic relationships with plants/trees

• Have elementary students search a designated area (e.g. forest, school grounds) for different types of mushrooms represented on the mushroom Bingo card

  • Note: It is safe to pick and handle all fungi (problems only occur when poisonous mushrooms are ingested)

  • Note: As mushrooms represent the fruiting body of the organism, there is no harm done to the organism (mycelium) when picking 

• Students mark their cards when a corresponding mushroom type has been found

• Students aim to complete a pattern on the card or find all of the mushrooms represented

Indoor

Mushroom Art (Preschool and up)

Materials: paper, crayons, markers, colored pencils, watercolor, tempera, acrylic paints, air-dry clay

• After going on an outdoor scavenger hunt to find fungi, lay specimens out on a table

  • Discuss colors, shapes, textures, and sizes 

  • Emphasize Iowa’s fungal biodiversity

• Explore mushroom colors and shapes through art (using the collected specimens as your guide):

  • Draw mushrooms using markers, crayons, colored pencils

  • Paint mushrooms using watercolor, tempera, or acrylic paints

  • Sculpt and paint mushrooms using air-dry clay and acrylic paints

Spore Prints (Preschool and up)

Materials: mushroom, black or white paper, eyedropper, water, glass or bowl

• Remove the stem from the cap 

  • Gilled mushrooms work best, but those with pores or other shapes are also useable

• Place cap gill-side down on paper 

  • Use white paper for darker spore colors, such as brown, black, gray, green, and purple 

  • Use black paper for lighter spore colors, such as white and pink

• Put one or two drops of water on the cap (this is to help release the spores)

• Cover the cap with a glass or bowl, depending on the size of the specimen

• Allow the mushroom to sit for 2-24 hours

• Carefully remove the cap to reveal the spore print

• Spore prints can be preserved with fixatives like hair spray

Further Exploration (Middle School and up)

Materials: microscope, access to iNaturalist/Seek

• After going on an outdoor foray to find fungi, lay specimens out on a table

• Sort specimens into different categories based on type (gilled, pored, etc.)

  • For example, gilled mushrooms, polypores, puffballs, cup fungi, coral fungi, stinkhorns, etc.

  • Emphasize Iowa’s fungal biodiversity

• Look at mushrooms under a microscope (spore shapes, etc.)

• Use iNaturalist/Seek or identification books to identify specimens