Peanut Day

March is National Peanut Month, a time to honor the peanut and it's most popular product, peanut butter. Choose any day during March to celebrate. Besides doing the activities listed below, you might wish to plan a few peanut games. For example, have a Peanut Toss, a Peanut Hunt, or have a Peanut Race and let the kids push peanuts across the floor with their noses. Follow up by providing handfuls of peanuts for counting, shelling, and tasting.

Peanut Shell Collages

Use this activity to recycle peanut shells saved from the other activities in this unit. Cut peanut shapes from heavy brown paper bags or brown construction paper. Pour glue into shallow containers and set out bowls of peanut shells. Then let the kids dip the shells (rounded side up) into the glue and then place them all over their peanut shapes.

The Peanut Plant

Explain that although we think of peanuts as nuts they really belong to the same family as peas and beans. Then use the following poem to help children understand how peanuts grow.

Up through the ground the peanut plant grows,
(Crouch down near floor)
Peeking out its little green nose.
(Slowly start to rise)

Reaching, reaching for the sky,

(Raise arms above head)
Growing, growing, growing high,
(Stand on tiptoe)

Then the flower starts to grow,

(Make a circle with arms)
Bur it doesn't grow up! Not it! Oh, no!
(Shake head)
Down it goes, sending shoots underground,
(Bend over and touch floor with fingers)
And there grow the peanuts, plump and round!
(Kneel and pretend to dig up peanuts)

Children can also color and label the parts of peanut plant on this printable resource.

Homemade Peanut Butter

Let the children help shell a package of unsalted roasted peanuts. Then have them grind the peanuts in a food grinder. Mix the ground nuts with 1/4 softened margarine and add salt to taste. Serve on crackers, apple slices, or celery sticks. Or, for a special treat, spread on slices of whole-wheat toast and top with warm applesauce.

Variation: Make peanut butter in a blender, using 1 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil for each cup of peanuts.

 Printable Activities

Iditarod Begins!

The Iditarod is a dog trail race through the state of Alaska that begins in early March each year.

You can track this multi-day race on a state map and take the opportunity to learn about the culture of the inhabitants of Alaska.

Here are a couple of maps that you might find helpful.

This printable mini book would be a great addition to an Iditarod lapbook!

Here's a great activity for kids to do to learn more about the Iditarod and the path it takes.

Perhaps your kids would enjoy making their own paper versions of a dog sled team. Here are two options - a simple version from Scholastic Teachables and a complex version from Woo Jr. When creating the simple version, you can print multiple pages of the dogs and then connect the dogs to the sled using yarn (wrap around the dogs to look like a harness and then string together and attach to the front of the sled).

And here is a craft to create your own dog sled using craft sticks and fuzzy stems.

If you want to expand your Iditarod learning, you might want to adapt the Iditaread challenge. It was originally provided by School Life in 2013 but you could easily use the resources and alter the date to the current year (and if you find more updated resources, please let me know).

You can learn more about the Iditarod and Alaska from the Enchanted Learning website. This site has some free information and a lot of resources available for subscribers.

Want even more great Iditarod ideas? Jen over at Teaching in the Tongas has some great ideas and resources for your Iditarod unit - check her out!

If you want another great resource for learning about the state of Alaska, try this free unit study from Marcy over at her homeschooling blog Ben and Me.

It's easy to tie in many different subjects in your study of the Iditarod - here are some math resources from Education World that incorporate the Iditarod theme.

Newspaper Education Month

The first full week of March is Newspapers Education Week. The celebration can be found at the Republican Herald's Website.

If you are looking for other ideas to use newspapers in your educational adventures, here are some additional ideas.

Find the Word Part
When I was in second grade our teacher had oodles of wonderful morning work activities for us (way before the days of Pintrest, this lady had it down). One of those activities was get an 1/8 sheet of newspaper (she would cut these down for us) and highlight all of the word parts of the day - for example we might be looking for all -ing words. This was one of my favorite activities because we got to read the news snippets AND we got to use the teacher's special highlighters. Other ideas of things to look for with this activity are words with a particular vowel sound, compound words, words in past, present or future tenses, possessives, plurals, and parts of speech.

Explore Geography
Have the kids find stories that illustrate each of the five themes of geography - location, place, human interaction and the environment, movement and communications, and regions. Display the stories on a bulletin board or have the group make a video or slideshow to present.

Make Your Own Newspaper
Once kids have had a chance to explore the newspaper, they might like to create their own. Here are a few resources you can print and use to create your own newspaper with your class or at home.

Girl Scout Fun Ideas - March Edition

I've worked with Girl Scouts for nearly two decades (it really doesn't feel like that long!) and one of the things I loved most about having a Girl Scout troop was our holiday and seasonal activities. The ideas I share in these monthly posts are from a New Leader Booklet that was shared with me when I started leading Girl Scout troops in the early 2000s. Since our council (and as far as I know any other) no longer shares this information, I want to make it accessible on the internet. Enjoy!

Have a cookie booth sale! Be sure to contact your association booth manager to schedule the place and time. Plan for potty breaks, and rotate the girls if you have more than one location. The girls usually have a great time working at booths, and you can have a treat for them afterward like pizza, ice cream, or whatever they have voted on. If you have younger girls, you might consider letting them bring their own money and going for fast food and letting them order their own food. Many young girls may not have had that experience before!

Learn knife safety. Practice on soap bars or peel carrots for snack.

Tie some knots. It's fun to practice with licorice ropes.

Make plans to celebrate the Girl Scout birthday with another troop. Make and decorate cupcakes to share. If you have candles, remember fire safety (put hair up or down the back of the shirt; stop, drop, and roll demonstration; etc. They can't hear this stuff enough!) Make friendship bracelets - two identical: one to keep and one to give to a friend. You can have the five colors of their worlds of Girl Scouting (World of the Arts - Violet, World of the Out of Doors - Gold, World of of People - Blue, World of Today and Tomorrow - Orange, World of Well-Being - Red) plus green and then use three colors at a time. The bracelets could be braided or just knotted at intervals depending on their ages. When they exchange bracelets, have them describe why they chose those colors (my favorite World of Girl Scouts, or my favorite colors, etc).

Make a time line of events in the Girl Scout Movement on a piece of big butcher paper. You can get all of the dates in the handbook. Then let the girls add in their birthdays. Have the girls make their own life-lines with major events in their lives.

On March 3, Japanese Children's Day and Doll Day are celebrated. Fifteen special dolls are arranged in a ceremonial fashion with the Emperor and the Empress in a place of honor. Artificial cherry and orange trees and household utensils are included. Girls dress in formal kimonos and serve tea and cakes to friends. Perhaps you could sample some Japanese food or do origami.

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17. Have a green meeting where you make green/shamrock crafts or eat green food. Eat potato soup, Irish stew, or make Irish soda bread or even baked potatoes. Have a potato toss.

Learn about snakes. (St. Patrick allegedly chased them out of Ireland.) [Note that in this myth "snakes" were a derogatory term for Pagans living in Ireland at the time. If any families in your troop are practicing Pagans, this could be a touchy holiday for them.] How many kinds of snakes are there? How many are poisonous and how many are beneficial?

Have a shamrock relay by making two large shamrocks out of green paper. Divide into two teams of equal players. Each team receives two shamrocks. At a signal, the team moves forward by stepping on the shamrocks. While standing on one, they must move the other one forward  for their next step. If you take a step off the shamrock before getting to the finish line, that player must start over. The first team with all the players across the finish line wins. 

Have a potato relay. Make a a line on the floor with masking tape for each team. The object is to roll the potato down the line with a a shillelagh (or a fairly thick, knotted stick). The player then runs the potato back to his team for the next player to use. The first team to get their potato over the finish line wins.

Beginning on March 21, Iranians celebrate the twelve day festival of No-ruz (Noh-rooz). This Muslim festival is symbolic of new life and growth, and the goodness of Allah. The festival table is spread with seven foods, all beginning with the letter "s" plus symbolic items. There is a legend that the earth trembles as the new year begins, so an egg is placed on a mirror and when cannons are shot, the egg trembles. Gardens of Adonis are grown with quick-growing seeds such as lentils and wheat. 

Plant some seeds and watch them grow, or plant some seedlings or plants. you could do some beautification at a local park or open space, or even join an effort to rid an area of non-native plants.

Passover is celebrated, which commemorates the Israelites' departure from Egypt and the first barley harvest. This is a family feast of Thanksgiving and freedom, with unleavened bread and many other traditional foods. Sample some of these foods and learn about the traditions.

Talk about good outdoor manners and conservation skills. Know how to protect and appreciate the natural world.

Take part in a conservation service project such as planting seedlings on a hillside to prevent erosion, repair trails, clean fire circles at a park, organize a newspaper or aluminum can recycling project at the girls' schools. Trim bushes to keep paths open, adopt a highway, take down old yard sale signs or flyers posted in the neighborhood. The possibilities are endless!

Hold a "Baby Shower" to benefit babies born to mothers in shelter or jail.

"Adopt" a grandparent at an eldercare home.

Make and fly a kite.

Go on a nature scavenger hunt. Have the girls find (but not pick - just show somebody else [or take a photo]) a smooth edged leaf, a Y shaped twig, something alive, a smooth rock, a pebble smaller than a pea, a pebble as big as a grain of rice, something that looks like something else, something prickly, somebody's food, a dark green and a light green leaf, a pinch of dust, a pretty thing besides a flower, something with more than four legs, something you pick things up with, a leaf with symmetrical veins, something dead, something yucky, something bumpy, a seed that travels by wind, something soft, and something furry.