Where is the baby plant in the peanut?

I wanted to do something for peanuts with Georgia because I remembered that Georgia is one of the largest peanut-producing states in our country and since one of my goals for our geography lessons is to teach the kids what the states are known for.  I thought for a little bit and then remembered this post from Almost Unschoolers, a quick and easy peanut science lesson. Now my geography lesson is turning into a science lesson as well.

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Some great peanut books to read to extend this peanut science lesson

• From peanut to peanut butter– Since Superman LOVES peanut butter sandwiches, this was a huge hit
• The life and times of the peanut– A quick overview of the life of a peanut from seed to growing and back around again
• Peanut– a cute story about an old woman who finds a small elephant and decides to make him a pet, it’s out of print, so you can only get it from third-party sellers
• Peanut Butter and Jelly: a play rhyme– I learned this rhyme as a kid from a Raffi tape because I’m ancient enough I had tapes growing up. I listened to it over and over again, even now as I type this up, the song is stuck in my head. **read all the way to the bottom for a funny Raffi story

Peanut science lesson for early elementary and preschool

Disclaimer: we obviously did not have any peanut allergies. If that’s going on in your home or classroom, I’d suggest just looking at the pictures in the books I suggest. It’s not the same as actually touching it, but I’m sure we’re all in agreement, we don’t want a hospital visit. Or you could go for a completely different less and use this

Disclaimer: we obviously did not have any peanut allergies. If that’s going on in your home or classroom, I’d suggest just looking at the pictures in the books I suggest. It’s not the same as actually touching it, but I’m sure we’re all in agreement, we don’t want a hospital visit. Or you could go for a completely different less and use this plant life cycle worksheet.

So, I gave all the kids a peanut.  Superman was very excited because he LOVES peanuts.  Loves the things.

We cracked open our peanuts and looked at how many nuts were in each shell. We looked at the thin paper-like covering on the nut. Finally, after doing a bit of exploring we found the newborn plant in the peanut. Which of course made it a successful peanut science lesson ;).

Then on the outside of the paper, I gave them they drew a picture of what they discovered.  The older kids also labeled the parts. (I’ve since created a much more complex printable, that I’ll have more info about at the bottom of the post)

Batman was not feeling the picture love right then.

Superman, on the other hand, was as happy as could be because he got to eat his peanuts, and about half the kids there gave him their peanuts.

Seventh Heaven.

On the inside of their paper they wrote/drew as many uses as they could think of for peanuts, and then continued to take a page from Almost Unschoolers we ate Peanut Butter Cookies.

This is the updated notebooking page I put together. Since I haven’t redone this lesson with the kids as giant middle school kids (yet), this is a quick example I made.

You’re almost to the peanut science lesson printable, but first, you have to endure…..

Funny story about Raffi

So, growing up I had a… unique Dad. Well, one day Raffi was on Good Morning America, and for whatever reason, my Dad actually saw this clip. He treated me to a long lecture all about how Raffi is a hippie. He had long hair and it was in a ponytail, and he might have even had an earring. I don’t really remember, all the details because I was hearing in my head the song, “Long-haired hippie people, need not apply,” because I grew up listening to music from the 60s. As an adult looking back, this is even more hilarious because my Dad had long John Lennon hair, you know the John Lennon from after the Beatles broke up, which is rather hippie-ish.

This is probably only hilarious to me, but all these years later it still makes me laugh.

Peanut science lesson printable

Peanut science lesson printable (in the subscriber library, JOIN MY NEWSLETTER), it’s a mini-book that you cut out and staple together. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it originally.

Some more fun geography ideas

• Mount Saint Helen lesson
• Christmas in Mexico
• Geography Games
• Colonial America: natural dyes
• Pecos Bill elementary lesson

Originally published April 29, 2011