Have you ever wondered who invented peanut butter? It wasn’t George Washington Carver, but he did help popularize it as a household food. Plus, he discovered hundreds of other uses for peanuts!

In fact, he came up with over 300 ways to use peanuts. He was a scientist and professor. He was a pretty interesting person. So, it totally makes sense that he is part of our social studies curriculum in first grade.

Sometimes, social studies can get a bit dry. So, I always try to be selective about the resources I use. I also do my best to make social studies lessons interesting.

At first, I had a hard time finding high-quality materials about him. Eventually, I did find some video clips and good books. I also created a project for my students to do. These peanut people turned out super cute! #CraftivityCuteness

Book Recommendations

While I didn’t find a perfect book for my littles to read, I did find two great options to read aloud. My higher groups could probably read these books, but my lower readers couldn’t. Whether your kids read them independently or you read them aloud, they’re great books for your history unit. (This post includes affiliate links.)

1. National Geographic Readers: George Washington Carver is a biography with real photographs and lots of information.
2. Who Was George Washington Carver? by Jim Gigliotti is another kid-friendly biography that shares a lot of interesting information about the different stages of his life.

George Washington Carver Video

If you can’t use YouTube, you might want to check out BrainPOP Jr. (here) or BrainPOP (here) for additional video resources.

Free George Washington Carver Writing Activity

Writing every day is important. That’s why I like including craftivities and writing activities in all of our subjects. My first graders wrote paragraphs about George Washington Carver and published their writing with a “peanut person” craftivity.

Some were simple and sweet. Some were ultra-girly, and a few even had to have cracked nuts! I love how the projects match the personalities of their creators. So cute!

This project is perfect for a unit on George Washington Carver, Black History Month, or a unit on American inventors. I hope your class enjoys it as much as mine did.

Make Your Own Peanut Person

Prep: Print the following pages out for each student.

• One peanut person outline – light brown paper
• One sheet of peanuts – dark brown paper
• 1-2 pages of peanut-shaped writing paper

Step 1. Students color their peanut people and cut them out.

Step 2. Next, students write keywords about George Washington Carver on the dark brown peanuts.

Step 3. Then, they write a paragraph about George Washington Carver using the keywords they chose. They write their paragraphs on the lined paper and then cut the peanut shapes out.

Step 4. Stack the writing under the peanut person and staple it to a large sheet of construction paper.

Step 5. Finally, students glue the dark brown peanuts around their peanut people.

I hope your class enjoys this writing craft as much as my students have.