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Growing Mushrooms with
Kids
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Mushrooms were among the many items in nature that
Beatrix Potter loved to study and paint. She was well respected by
mycologists for the work that she did. Have your child follow in her
footsteps by growing and observing a patch of mushrooms. |
What you need:
•
Mushroom-growing kit
• Additional supplies for growing mushrooms, such as water, soil, newspaper,
coffee grounds, etc.
• Notebook
• Colored pencils and/or camera |
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What you do:
• Get a mushroom-growing kit from a store or
on the Internet. Some mushrooms may be grown inside in a container, while
others may be grown outside. Pick your kit by deciding what kind of mushroom
you would like to end up eating and how much care you and your child will be
able to give to raising your mushroom crop. Some good mushrooms to grow with
children include Flammulina populicola, Pleurotus ostreatus, and Pleurotus
tuber-regium. NOTE: For safety’s sake, do not try to grow and/or eat
mushrooms you collect from the wild!
• Follow the instructions given by the kit. It might be helpful to set up a
schedule for you and your child to follow with specific times for tending to
and observing your patch.
• Experiment with the growing conditions to see how different factors affect
your mushrooms. You might vary the substance on which you grow the
mushrooms, how much light you expose them to, and the temperature at which
you keep them.
• Observe your patch with your child from time to time. Help your child
write descriptions of how the mushrooms are growing and either sketch or
photograph your mushrooms to keep a record of their growth.
• Research how best to cook and eat your mushrooms. Then, enjoy your crop!
What you can talk about:
• Mushrooms are not plants or animals. They
are fungi. They grow from spores, not seeds, and since they do not have
chlorophyll like plants do to make their own food, they must fill all their
nutritional needs from the material on which they are growing. Help your
child use your observations of your patch to make a list of ways mushrooms
are alike and different from plants and animals.
• Some parts of a mushroom are the cap (where the spores are made), the stem
(which supports the cap), and the mycelium (which grows in soil or another
nutrient-rich substance and collects food for the mushroom). Help your child
draw and label one of your mushrooms.
• Work with your child to draw the life cycle of your mushrooms. First, a
mushroom releases spores. Next, a spore lands where it can grow and forms a
mycelium underground. Then, a stem and cap grow above ground. Last, new
spores drop from under the cap.
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