How to make a Fungi Habitat Diorama

The Amanita muscaria -also called fly agaric-  is a mushroom that makes its grand appearance in many myths and fairy tales. Its attractive red color really draws attention! The fly agaric is easy enough to recognize with its bright red color and white dots. And the fact that it’s indeed poisonous might just add to the appeal.

When my daughter received her monthly homework package with the assignment to make a Fungi Habitat Diorama, she immediately choose to make fly agaric mushrooms. We started searching the internet for information about this grand and appealing mushroom.

Some facts we learned about the fly agaric

1) It’s also called Amanita Muscaria. The name “fly agaric” derives from the fact that an insect repellent used to be made from this specific kind of mushroom. Mushed up and mixed with milk, it will draw flies -and kill them!

2) Mushrooms are not plants! They are decomposers, meaning they can’t make energy from the sunlight like plants do. Instead they break down “organic left overs”, such as dead leaves and animals. Watch this really clear definition of Producers, Consumers and Decomposers.

3) The amanita muscaria lives in symbiosis with different trees, including birch, cedar, pine, spruce and fir. The mushrooms get energy in form of sugar from the tree and the tree gets nutrients that are produced through the mushrooms’ decomposing process.

4) The red color and white spots on the mushroom can sometimes wash off over time by rain.

5) The fly agaric is toxic, but rarely fatal, as you’d have to eat many of them for it to kill you. The mushroom can still be eaten if cooked correctly.

How we made a Fungi Habitat Diorama

Materials needed

• Old shoe box
• Acrylic paints and brushes
• Chunks of wood or thick branches
• Glue gun (optional, but very useful)
• Brown paper bags or pieces of paper
• Plaster-of-Paris cloth wrap
• Some moss and grass
• A couple of pieces of lace

How to prepare the Diorama Box

Step 1

Find a box for your diorama project. Cut a piece of card board the same size as the box base and glue it in order to stabilize the base.

Step 2

Paint the sky on the background and sides inside the box.

Step 3

Find a few pieces of fire wood or thick sticks and saw/cut them to fit the box. Those will be your trees.

Step 4

Paint the “trees”. We choose to make birch trees (because they are so beautiful), so we painted them white with darker marks on the bark. Glue the trees in place in box, using a glue gun.

Step 5

Cover the “ground” with moss and grass, maybe put some twigs as well. Glue into place.

Making Mushrooms for our Fungi Habitat Diorama

 When it came to making the fly agaric mushrooms, we searched online again. There are several options out there, but we decided to go with a paper base and then to cover the base with cloth plaster wrap. We have used this material before and loved it, so it was a no-brainer for us!

Step 7

Now you’re going to wrap the paper mushroom up in cloth plaster wrap. I bought this on Amazon, but I’m sure you can get it at your local craft store as well. Cut small pieces, about an inch wide, and soak them for a few seconds in a shallow dish with lukewarm water. 

Step 9

These are some mushrooms already wrapped, waiting to dry. The next step will be to paint them. We (obviously) painted them bright red with white dots, but you can make any kind of mushrooms you wish:) Draw darker lines underneath with a marker or thin brush for the gills.

Step 11

Glue the mushrooms where you want them inside the box. VOILA! This is how you make a Fungi Habitat Diorama.

I hope you enjoyed our little step-by-step tutorial on how to make a Fungi Habitat Diorama.

We are going to ask for a tour at a local mushroom grower to learn more on how to grow mushrooms. Who knows; maybe we’ll try growing some on our own:) 

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