Outdoor Hour Challenge:
For this challenge we are going to be on the lookout for any mushroom/fungus that we spy in our backyard or local area. Be sure to check out the previous mushroom nature study challenge from the Autumn Series of 2009. There is also a suggestion from the Handbook of Nature Study to capture a series of mushrooms in watercolors (page 717). I think this is such a wonderful idea and hope to start with one mushroom watercolor this week.
You may wish to print and take the printable below with you during your outdoor time to record any mushrooms you find to observe. If you need an explanation for the vocabulary used with the printable, see the links below (also found on page 717 of the Handbook of Nature Study).
The printable grid from the newsletter and the printable from the first challenge this month are both applicable to this challenge as well.
Free Printable Activity: Sketch Mushroom Cap Shapes
Free Printable Notebook Page:
Mushroom Cap Sketches
Great Links:
How to Identify Mushrooms and Where to Find Them
Mushroom Chart with Illustrations
Cap Morphology on Wikipedia ***
Fabulous Fungi (UK website)
Advanced vocabulary and diagrams-mushrooms
Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #3. Drawing mushrooms in your nature journal can be fun and interesting…a great way to really see all the parts. Include labels, the date and location you found the mushroom, and any other fun facts from your outdoor time. Make it personal and special.
We haven’t made a nature journal page per say, but we have been working on our mushroom study. We bought a mushroom garden and have been delightedly watching mushrooms grow from the box. They went through the mycelium, to the button stage so far. We can hardly wait for them to get to the stage where we can cook them.
We have done our moss entry. No live mushrooms yet. 🙁 We should do a check today before the snow come again. UGH! Come on Spring!
Kelly
Not many mushrooms around here as we are still covered in a foot of snow but hopefully soon it will all melt and we can enjoy Spring!
I would love these Notebooking pages. I’m new to nature studies and need all the help I can get!
We have done some sketches of mushrooms. Hoping to see some mushrooms soon on our property.
We haven’t finished any nature pages yet. Hoping to next week after we’re past this weekend of company. I did find the remains of a puffball from last fall. When I pulled it up a fine coating of spores blew out. Melanie
My kids are loving the mushroom study. Thank you so much!
We have not made a journal page this month. We did go for a nature walk at the Western Trails Museum in Council Bluffs, where we found some moss growing at the edge of the path.
We have not started a nature journal yet. This year I added art study and that has worked well over the year, so maybe next year we can add a nature notebook. We have been noticing moss and lichen more–so much variety!
We are starting nature studies again after a two year hiatus. Yikes! Too much academics and not enough education. We are enjoying it so much. Lots of moss and lichen in our front yard. We saw shelf fungus while visiting the local state park nearby!
Have not started a journal yet. My kiddos r still in PS and Godwilling slowly return home next year. But plan on taking it up slowly in a month or 2 so that we can do something on a regular basis in the summer and beyond. Thanks! Sarah
We have not made a nature journal page yet, but it is on the list of things to do this week!
If you can call assembled drawing of nature exploration a journal, than yes – but my daughter is still too small for one real nature journal 🙂
We love your pages and use them all year! We make our own maple syrup so we always pay attention to the trees, we used one as our tree study and finished up our winter pages this past week. We did the signs of spring last week, but it was still a little too early this year. I have pages printed and ready to go! We are avid mushroom hunters so we are going to do spore prints and find new (non edible) to collect this spring. We live in the woods so your pages are perfect!