Last updated: December 16, 2021
Lesson Plan
George Washington Carver - The Artist: Resource to His People
- 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.2.A,B; 3.VA.8.A; 3.VA.11.A
4.VA.1.A,B; 4.VA.2.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; Pr6.1.3
CR3.1.4; Pr6.1.4 - 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.
Essential Question
Why did the famous scientist, George Washington Carver, plan to teach science for just a few years and then go back to doing what he really loved to do?
How did he continue to express his creativity and love of art, even while teaching science for more than 40 years?
Objective
This is one lesson from the unit plan, George Washington Carver - The Artist. Students will understand that George Washington Carver used many types of media, including fibers, in his artwork. Students will value Carver’s many skills and his capacity to form lasting friendships. Students will learn to weave a bracelet. They will pick their own colors using their knowledge of color theory. Students will also be encouraged to give the bracelet to a friend whose friendship they cherish.
Background
George Washington Carver viewed Tuskegee Institute not only as his mission field, but as a temporary one. "You doubtless know that I am came here (solely) for the benefit of my people, no other motive in view. Moreover, I do not expect to teach many years, but will quit as soon as I can trust my work to others, and engage in my brushwork, which will be of great honor to our people showing to what we may attain, along science, history, literature, and art.”
In 1901, Carver discontented with his accommodations, appealed to the Tuskegee Board for two more rooms. He stated “I desire a place to do some historic painting. I greatly desire to do this that it may go down in the history of this race.” Throughout his long tenure at Tuskegee Institute the demands on his time were enormous. What spare time he salvaged from his hectic schedule usually went for the pursuit of loves he had sacrificed, like botany and art. He found time to crochet, knit, and do needlework. He found these activities fulfilling and they enabled him to produce useful items for friends. He had great appreciation for the world around him, especially the materials found in nature. He dyed many of his own threads and fibers with natural dyes made from local walnut, mulberry, and ochre clay.
George Washington Carver became a scientist, a teacher, a speaker, and more but he never entirely let go of his art. Rather he brought it into his other pursuits and at times even let it guide them. Carver taught art classes at Tuskegee Institute in addition to his regular roster of courses. He also allowed his artistic talents to improve his scientific work. He drew diagrams with the fine pen of an illustrator, collected specimens with the attention of a painter and crossbred plants with profound creativity. Throughout his life he maintained the soul of an artist and continued to paint. Carver was driven by science, but art remained his passion.
George Washington Carver’s talents were recognized in England as well as in the United States. In 1916, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In his final years, Carver decided that in addition to his other achievements, he wanted also to be remembered by his artistic talents. Carver’s greatest recognition as an artist came on November 17, 1941, when the Carver Art Gallery in the George Washington Carver Museum at Tuskegee Institute was opened to the public.
Quoting an article in Time magazine on Monday, November 24, 1941: “By the time he had got them all hung, Painter Carver had filled the Museum’s gallery with 71 of his pictures . . . Many of them painted with homemade colors . . . Nearly all were deft, somewhat primly academic depictions of natural phenomena. Visitors, impressed by the simple realism and tidy workmanship of the pictures, found still more to admire in the adjoining collection of handicrafts (embroideries on burlap, ornaments made of chicken feathers, seed and colored peanut necklaces, woven textiles) which almost incredibly versatile Carver had turned out between scientific experiment and painting. His gnarled hands are always busy with bits of string, tinfoil, clay, which he fashions, as he talks, into decorative objects. He is proudest of his Peaches, painted with pigment made of native clay, not as a work of art but because any child should be able to use similar material. ‘That’s just the clay we walk on every day.” Says he, “Our clays are just as brilliant as the ones the old masters used. Michelangelo used clay like this.’ ”
More than 2,000 visited the gallery on opening day. His work won high praise from art critics. His work surprised and inspired many. Recognizing Carver’s many and varied talents, one visitor asked how he had been able to do so many different things. George Washington Carver replied, “Would it surprise you if I told you that I have been doing only one thing? The artist, his writings, his weaving, his music, his paintings are just the expressions of his soul in search for truth.”
Preparation
Supplies needed:
cross-stitch thread
safety pin
Teacher Notes: Students love to weave. Allow them plenty of time to complete the bracelet. You may even want to let them take it home if time is short. Once they have the hang of the weave, those who understand it and are successful can also help others.
Materials
Download George Washington Carver - The Artist Curriculum
Lesson Hook/Preview
If you could spend the day doing the one thing you loved best, what would it be? Maybe you love to play football. Maybe you love playing video games. Maybe you love to cook or paint or exercise.
Procedure
Follow instructions in the downloadable file for making friendship bracelets.
Vocabulary
analogous colors - colors that are next to each other on the color wheel
complementary colors - colors located opposite one another on the color wheel
diagonal line - a line that tends to create a feeling of dynamic movement
Assessment Materials
Journal ReflectionName two reasons that George Washington Carver created artwork. Write a paragraph for each reason. Optional: Add a third paragraph to describe why you like to create artwork.
Supports for Struggling Learners
This activity required fine motor skills and the ability to follow instructions carefully. It may be easier for some students to use yarn instead of thread.
Enrichment Activities
Have students cut out two pictures of the same size from magazines and cut one vertical and the other horizontal for weaving. This creates an optical illusion and can be very interesting. It can also connect to recycling for which Carver was well known.
You could have students dye their own strips of material, possibly tie-dye, and weave it into long braids. Once the braids are completed, have students roll the braid into a round coaster. Secure by sewing together where needed on the bottom.
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.