Sunday, October 12th, is UK Fungus Day 2014.  Supported by The British Mycological Society in partnership with the Society of Biology, major events are being held at Cambridge Science Centre, the National Botanic Garden of Wales, Kew Gardens, the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, The John Innes Centre Norwich, Queenswood Arboretum and the Whitby Museum.

But, if you can’t make it to those events, Fungus Day has several downloads available on its website to help you go on your own family toadstool and mushroom information hunt and celebrate the everyday roles fungus plays in our lives…

From getting dressed in the morning to eating throughout the day to a quick prescription pick-up, Dave shows us how we wear, eat and drink fungi or fungal products every day of our lives in the cartoon strip Fungus – a day in your life written by David Moore and illustrated by Phil Elliott for the British Mycological Society.  The printable download also includes further information on the Society’s work which aims to promote the knowledge of fungi and fungal science at all levels.

Also available here are a leaflet on The Fungal Kingdom, that explains there’s much more to fungi than simply the fruit bodies we can see at this time of year and how changing weather patterns are affecting their growth, and a Have You Seen This Fungus? leaflet that urges naturalists to record their fungus findings and share them with the Society as part of its survey looking into common fungi.  This leaflet also helpfully includes information on six diferent types so you know what you’re looking for!

And, if the weather calls for indoor activities rather than an autumnal woodland walk, the Fungus Day website also provides a Supermarket Challenge download that asks whether you can identify the fungi in your shopping basket and gives you further information on each item – did you know “Fungi are an ideal food because they have a fairly high content of protein (typically 20 to 30% crude protein as a percentage of dry weight) and contain all the amino acids which are essential to huma health – and several of the vitamins, too”?

The British Mycological Society also hosts a Fungi 4 Schools website which includes a variety of class sheets as well as a What’s your favourite fungus? card game.

Elsewhere on the internet Nature Detectives also offers a Fungi activity pack which includes a spotter sheet, trump cards, wordsearches, fungus or false puzzle, fungi, moss and lichen hunt, DIY fungus experiment, match-up, cartoons, bingo and fly agaric colouring sheet.  And you can also find a Fungi Detective page as part of Wildlife Watch’s spotter sheets.

National Parks, “Britain’s breathing spaces”, includes a Fungi Foray activity sheet with fantastic fungi facts, parts of a mushroom, a glossary, quiz and recording sheets and a Fun Facts About Fungi sheet is also available from Terra Urbem’s American mom that she designed for her children.   Fellow mom Kimberley shares a Printable Musroom Craft project that she did with her daughter Lorelai on her blog Learn, Create, Love and if it’s something decorative you’re looking for then head over to the Graphics Fairy where Karen has posted a Gorgeous Botanical Mushroom Printable.

And, for those quite happy enjoying the imagery by itself, Paper and the Pea offers some cute mushroom memo paper and Marie invites you to “Get Your Dose of Mushroom Madness with this Free Set of Fun Fairy Home Printable Stationery” which includes notecards, tags, accents and polka dot wraps.

Hope you have fun on your fungus forays today – just remember that, as sweet as they look, some can be very poisonous!

Do you love finding printables on the internet?  Do you have particular favourites?  Or have you feature some on your own blog?  Email karen.malpass @ inkfactory.com with your links and we may be able to feature them in a future post.