Resources for Learning about George Washington Carver

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:

Art for Kids Hub: How to Draw George Washington Carver video
Monster Word Search: George Washington Carver word search
Education.com: George Washington Carver coloring page
Playground Park Bench: Painting with peanuts

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!

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Free Black History Month Coloring Sheets and…

Human brains are pretty amazing, allowing us to think, feel, create, communicate, move and more. But humans aren’t the only animals with cool brains, as Crab Museum explains in the book The No-Brainer Brain Explainer (illustrated by Bruno Valasse).

This book, aimed at kids in grades 1-4, is colorful and silly but also educational about how brains actually work, with billions of neurons sending electrical and chemical signals around the body.

“Everything we think, feel and experience comes from an electrical relay race, with neurons passing chemical batons to each other,” the book says. “The constant chatter of billions of brain cells creates your entire world.”

The book compares the brains of mammals to those of crabs (the book is “written” by a crab after all) and notes that crabs have fewer neurons and of course are much smaller, but they have separate parts of their brains that control their eyes and their legs. Crabs are also capable of remembering things, using tools and solving puzzles.

Some animals’ brains allow them to know more about their world in different ways from humans, such as spiders being sensitive to vibrations in their webs and catfish having an amazing sense of taste, with taste sensors all over their bodies.

It notes that 95 percent of brain activity goes toward things we do unconsciously, like breathing, walking and catching a ball flying toward us. It also talks about dreams, memory, how our emotions try to predict the future, where brains came from and fun facts about brains. For example, did you know a sperm whale is believed to have the biggest brain of any creature that’s even lived? Their brains weigh 18 pounds, compared to just 2.5 pounds for humans.

Information on what creatures have the smallest brains, the toughest brains, the most brains and those who actually eat their own brains will delight kids (and maybe gross them out a little bit). They’ll also enjoy learning about the mycelium network of fungi, which is like a brain without a body, and slime molds, which are like a brain without a brain.

It ends talking about why human brains are so special because we’ve found ways to work together, communicate and build communities on a scale bigger than any other animal.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy this colorful, silly and informational book about brains!

About the book: 64 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $19.99.

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