Handbook of Nature Study: Mushroom Exploration

I always look forward to the new Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter at the beginning of each month. One of the grid activities for the month of Mushrooms, Lichen, and Moss is to observe the gills of a mushroom. I knew we had some mushrooms  (edible even from what I was told) growing on one of our trees out front--they've been there for months, but just yesterday I saw them on the ground near the house. The boys finally tore them off. We've been melting/freezing outside, so I picked up what I could and put them on a plate on the table, hoping to get to them soon.

As older boys were working on homework, this guy needed something to do. I thought, "Let's look at these mushrooms!" He found grass on it and was quite perplexed and needed to show it to me.

He poked, prodded, pulled, etc.

I guess adding tools to this would have been a good fit. A magnifying glass, excavating tools, or tweezers, etc. might have extended the experience a bit.

Then I remembered, he insisted I buy mushrooms the other day. Hmm . . . how will these compare? I let him choose one to investigate in more depth.

He finally retrieved a knife and started cutting things up. His little hands need activities like this.

He compared the gills between the two, looking closely at each mushroom. By this time, he'd forgotten mom put something weird from the tree on HIS plate.

A little multi-tasking with reading, cub scouts, entertaining the baby, and exploring mushrooms. While my three-year-old did most of the exploration, his brothers were still around and interacting with the material.

The little one continued cutting and tearing.

He was at this for a full hour! I honestly couldn't believe he was so engrossed in it! What should we be investigating next--bell peppers (okay--saw a cute shamrock with these on Pinterest today), squash, or cucumbers? We actually did some fruit and vegetable explorations in the fall at Nurturing Acorns, so I guess this is not new. I just hadn't thought of such intense study of mushrooms!

Chop, chop, chop!

Thanks for the challenge, Barb!

Chopping some more! (Paint on his forehead from an earlier paint project--when I think about it, he didn't really ever watch television today).

All his chopping efforts landed on the floor once I started getting dinner around . . . so his interest went back to heroes and villains in the newest Lego magazine!

Thanks for the challenge, Barb! We'll be looking for more mushrooms and resources soon. I just printed the mushroom coloring pages to investigate more. This guy LOVES to color. If only he'd stick to paper! We'll have to work on eating store bought mushrooms from the challenge tomorrow, since he insisted I bought these.