Less and less of today’s children spend it out in the great outdoors.  The ANR/4-H agent decided to bring a part of the forest into the classroom.  With the help of the fifth-grade teachers at MES their students learned about mushrooms during their 4-H Club time once a month.  Students were able to identify the parts of the mushroom and also created a taxonomy guide to help with identification of mushrooms.

Students in February planted mushroom spawn into toilet paper rolls and placed the rolls in bags and in the dark for 3 weeks.  Five different types of toilet paper were used, and rolls of newspaper was also used.  After 3 weeks students open their bags and documented what they found.  All the group’s items were 100% covered in mycelium.  Students watered the mushrooms once a day by using a spray bottle.  Students documented what they saw each week on their lab sheet.  Students were able to participate for a week before school let out for the Covid-19 virus of 2020.  Every group had mushroom growth.

After school was cancelled the ANR/4-H agent, FCS/4-H Agent and Snap Assistant participated in a Facebook Live video using the mushrooms in a 2019 snap calendar recipe Mushroom and Chicken.  1301 engagements have been recorded at the time this was wrote.  Students were amazed that they grew the mushrooms on Toilet Paper and Newspaper.