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Resources for Learning about George Washington Carver

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March is Peanut Month, so it’s a great time to spend some time learning about the life and legacy of George Washington Carver. While he is known as a scientist who explored many different uses for the peanut, he also worked to help diversify agriculture among Black farmers, encouraging crop rotation and natural fertilization methods to enrich the soil.

He “creative chemistry” methods resulted in more than 280 products that could be made from peanuts as well as more than 150 made from sweet potatoes. You can read a full bio and learn about some of these products from Tuskegee University. This slide presentation covers his early life as well as his work in agriculture, science and has some activities like fact/opinion, similarities and differences and a quiz for kids to take at the end.

Calm and Wave has a unit study for George Washington Carver on Teachers Pay Teachers, but their blog post has some good information and resources, too.

Another great mini history lesson found on Teachers Pay Teachers is from Look We’re Learning. Her blog post goes into a lot of detail about what’s included.

The Mailbox has a mini booklet you can print that has space for kids to draw picture related to his life.

If you want to get into peanuts, you can plant peanuts and learn more about how they grow, or make this paper plate peanut plant craft from Happy Toddler Playtime.

Here are a few more quick projects and printables to use when you’re doing a George Washington Carver unit:

My blog post linked at the very top has some books you might want to check out to learn more about him. And if your kiddos can handle peanuts, throwing in some peanut themed snacks would be a great way to round out a GWC day!

Have you read?

Crafts to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 each year (because it celebrates the time period when several countries gained their independence) and it’s a great time to bring in some Hispanic inspired crafts and foods. For an overview on the celebration, the difference between Hispanic and Latino and the importance of the holiday, as well as a look at Latino art and famous Latinos and Latinas, check out this post and related information from the National Museum of the American Latino.

Spanish Playground has a great collection of craft ideas that you can do in Spanish class or with kids in any class or at home. It includes things like weaving, making mola (folk art from Panama; learn more at Kid World Citizen), doing an artist study of a Hispanic artist and more.  

Crafty Chica has a great collection of crafts, coloring pages and printables for celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with kids. I love this coloring page inspired by Amante bark painting, but there are also folk art stamps, corn husk dolls, tile painting ideas and more. 

Papel picado is a classic folk art from Mexico that will feel familiar if you’ve ever made a paper snowflake. Learn how to make them from tissue paper with this video from Hispanic Society Museum and Library. 

Learn more about Hispanic Heritage Month, get recipes and crafts from PBS Kids. I love this Peruvian siku flute, which can be made with old markers or paper straws.

While not exactly a craft, playing loteria (a Spanish language bingo game) is a fun thing to do with a group of kids. Free Kids Crafts has printable bingo cards with basic Spanish vocabulary and images for people who don’t already know these words. 

And if you need a little snack when you’re done crafting, try these no bake mini tres leches cakes from Inspired by Family. They’re made with purchased pound cake so they’re pretty fast and easy. 

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