Last updated: December 17, 2021
Lesson Plan
George Washington Carver - The Artist: A Colorful South
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- State Standards:
- Missouri Learning Standards Visual Arts:
3.VA.1.B; 3.VA.2.A; 3.VA.7.A
4.VA.2.A; 4.VA.3.A; 4.VA.11.A
Missouri Learning Standards Social Studies:
3.H.3.B.b; 3.H.3.C.a; 3.EG.5.D; 3.RI.6/E
4.EG.5.D; 4.EG.5.F - Additional Standards:
- National Visual Arts Standards – Media Arts:
CR3.1.3; Re8.1.3
CR3.1.4; Re8.1.4 - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts.
Essential Question
How does a freshly painted room, fence, or building sometimes make people feel?
Why did George Washington Carver create paints, dyes, and stains from inexpensive materials?
Objective
This is one lesson from the unit plan, George Washington Carver - The Artist. Students will understand George Washington Carver’s desire to create a colorful South. They will learn about color value using one color plus white and black to get as many tints and shades of that color possible.
Background
As early as the days of his youth, George Washington Carver made his own paints and pigments. As a child, he made paints from crushed berries, seeds, and flowers. Creating his own paints remained a hobby throughout his life.
As an adult he became interested in the natural colors in clay. In 1901, he discovered that Alabama clays produced beautiful, long lasting pigments when mixed with starches, pastes, or oils. He refined the extracted pigments and made paints.
When no chemical lab was provided for him at Tuskegee, he constructed his own. “I went to the trashpile at Tuskegee Institute.” Carver recalled, “and started my laboratory with bottles, old fruit jars and any other thing I found could use.” Carver was able to provide valuable services with his makeshift lab. He went from cook stove chemist to creative chemist.
At the heart of his activities, were the ideas that nature produced no waste and even the poorest man could improve his living conditions through the proper use of natural resources. Native clays were the only natural resources that interested Carver from a natural standpoint during the first two decades of his work. He advanced the use of native clays in beautifying farmhouses with color washes. He was intrigued with the possibility that paint production could become a leading industry for the area and made several unsuccessful attempts to arouse interest in the commercialization of Alabama clays.
Wanting the south to be beautiful as well as fed, George shared his paint-mixing recipes freely in bulletins and talks. Carver hoped to show poor people how to surround themselves with beauty without spending a penny. His pigments were used to color several buildings on Tuskegee’s campus and in nearby towns.
Carver began displaying his work at county fairs and colleges throughout the south. His artistic abilities helped him to create eye-catching displays. His swatches of coordinating colors showed people how to match up paint colors for aesthetically pleasing outcomes. As an agricultural chemist, Carver discovered three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more uses for soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes. Among the items listed that he suggested to southern farmers to help them economically were his recipes for and improvements to: adhesives, axle grease, bleach, buttermilk, chili sauce, fuel briquettes, ink, instant coffee, linoleum, mayonnaise, meat tenderizer, metal polish, paper, plastic, pavement, shaving cream, shoe polish, synthetic rubber, talcum powder and wood stain. Only three patents were ever issued to George Washington Carver.
He also worked at developing industrial applications from agricultural crops. During World War I, he found a way to replace the textile dyes formerly imported from Europe. He produced dyes of 500 different shades and was responsible for the invention of a process for producing paints and stains from clay. George Washington Carver received three separate patents:
- U.S. 1,522,176 Cosmetics and Producing the Same. January 6, 1925. George W. Carver. Tuskegee, Alabama
- U.S. 1,541,478 Paint and Stain and Producing the Same June 9, 1925. George W. Carver. Tuskegee, Alabama
- U.S. 1,632,365 Producing Paints and Stains. June 14, 1927. George W. Carver. Tuskegee, Alabama
George Washington Carver was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Simpson College in 1928. He was an honorary member of the Royal Society of Arts in London, England. In 1923, he received the Spingarn Medal given every year by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1939, he received the Roosevelt Medal for restoring southern agriculture. On July 14, 1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt honored Carver with a national monument dedicated to his accomplishments. The area of George Washington Carver’s childhood near Diamond, Missouri is preserved as the first unit of the National Park Service designated to honor an African American.
"He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world." - Epitaph on the grave of George Washington Carver.
Preparation
Gather the following supplies:
pre-mixed tempera paints
construction paper cut into 6x12 inch strips
paint brushes
Materials
Download George Washington Carver - The Artist Curriculum
Lesson Hook/Preview
What are some ways that people try to make their surroundings more cheerful? These may include lights, flowers, or other ways to add color.
Have you ever had your room repainted? How was the color selected?
Procedure
- Conduct a short lesson, using the background information.
- Give each student one color of tempera paint plus black and white.
- Have students start in the center of the paper and paint the pure color without anything added.
- Begin adding small amounts of white to get color variations (tints).
- Paint each color onto paper touching the previous color, going up on the paper.
- Do the same thing by adding black (shade) to the true color going down on the paper.
Vocabulary
monochromatic - consisting of one color but that may vary in hue, value, and intensity
tint - light values of a color by adding white
shade - dark values of a color by adding black
color swatch - a palette showing a variety of shades of the same color
color value - light or dark; the variations of light and dark on the surface of an object
Assessment Materials
Color SwatchesThe color swatches can be considered a performance event. You could grade the value range and give students a specific number of colors for grading purposes. Have students explain the process and talk about their favorite color that was created in the process.
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If time allows, have students create a painting using the color from their swatch.
Supports for Struggling Learners
For students with fine motor skill challenges, it may be helpful to us a larger brush, a sponge brush, or even allow finger painting.
Additional Resources
Watch the film George Washington Carver - A Man of Character: https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=6FA1262D-CD71-4C9D-A77C-D477D96D7727
Distance learning is available. Request a virtual visit with the park rangers at George Washington Carver National Monument: 417-325-4151
Related Lessons or Education Materials
For more art lessons based on George Washington Carver’s life, download the unit, George Washington Carver – The Artist from this lesson plan.