Behold the Beauty ~ Art Curriculum
for Elementary Christian Education, Volume 3: Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6 is a Christian based art
curriculum. This is a physical spiral bound workbook. The workbook is divided
into three sections, one for each grade level. Each grade level contains twelve
lessons. The cost of the workbook is $32.47.
This would
be ideal for the homeschool setting but could also be used in the classroom
setting as well. As referenced above this particular workbook is for grades
4-6. Art concepts taught in the curriculum focus on specific elements of art
and principles of design. The elements of art are essentially the building
blocks of composition which include: line, shape, texture, color, form, and
value. Principles of design include: unity, focal point, variety, contrast,
balance, movement, rhythm, pattern, proportion, and perspective.
Grade 4
focuses heavily on informal balance and using warm and cool colors. Past
concepts that are reinforced in this level are pattern, symmetry, focal point,
and perspective. Students are also given an introduction to Art History and
then the last lesson culminates with a project where the objective is for the
student “to see and demonstrate that art
is a means of visual expression, while reviewing the principles of balance and
focal point.”
Grade 5
focuses and encourages the student to practice contour drawing with animal and
hand study. Students are also introduced to positive and negative space,
one-point perspective, more in-depth insight into the color wheel, and
Impressionism. The final lesson has the student “using the principles of balance and focal point while experimenting
with oil pastel and considering how God uses creation to teach us many truths.”
Grade 6
focuses heavily on the principle of movement. Two-point perspective is
introduced as well as analogous colors and the printing process. In the final
lesson students will “experiment with
watercolor while reviewing the principles of design.”
At the
beginning of each grade level you will find a Master Supply List. Lesson
numbers in which the supplies will be used are in parentheses. For example, the
Master Supply List for fifth grade is broken down into the following
categories:
- Adhesives
- Drawing and Coloring Utensils
- Miscellaneous
- Paint Supplies
- Paper
- Tools
- Worksheets
- Pictures/Objects for Demonstration or Reference
- Painting References
Students
are also provided with a Master Vocabulary List of important art terms with
corresponding lesson in parentheses.
Each
lesson has a beautiful, colorful, landscape photograph along with a framed example
of the finished piece of the artwork that the student will be completing in the
lesson. For example, Part 1: Lesson 12, Art Talks! looks at seventeenth-century
Dutch floral paintings.
Lessons
are then broken down into the following sections.
Objective
The
objective in the lesson is the “demonstrate that art is a means of visual
expression, while reviewing the principles of balance and focal point.”
Supplies
They have
students reference several seventeenth-century Dutch floral paintings. One of
the painting students are asked to look at is As the Old Ones Sing, the Little Ones Twitter (1663-65) by Jan Steen.
A list of various other art supplies is also given. A time tip is also given
which states, “Draw and color flower picture in one session. Write out Bible
text and mount picture and text in another session.”
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
and definitions for the words are given in this section.
Introduction
This
introduces the lesson and artistic objective that will be covered in the
lessons. Biblical viewpoints are also brought into the discussion and scripture
is given.
Directions
Step-by-step
directions for competing the art project are given. Scripture is intertwined
throughout the lesson. At the end of the lesson variations of the artwork are
given such as using colored pencils instead of crayons or searching Scripture
to find other text that references and illustrates similar creation
perspective.
Scripture Reference
“For all flesh is as grass, and all
the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower
thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth forever.” I Peter 1:24-25
I used
this workbook with my 4th and 6th grade daughters. They
both thoroughly enjoyed the lessons. My 4th grader was hooked when
in Lesson One she got to observe “Patterns and Textures on Sea Shells.” My
daughter raided her brothers shell collection and found several favorite shells
that she wanted to work with. After careful deliberation, she finally decided
which shell she would choose to use. For the lesson, the student would use a
cropping tool that they would create to observe the pattern and texture of the
shell. The student is asked to look for orderly repetition (repeating lines,
dots, stripes, shapes, textures). They are then asked to recreate the small
magnified section of the shell as their artwork using oil pastels. The supply
list did not call for this but I got out a magnifying glass so that my daughter
could see the fine detail of the shell. As she worked on the artwork we had a
great discussion about how awesome God’s creation was and how He took time to
add so much detail to all of His creation. As my 4th grader was
working on this lesson my 6th grader walked into the room and begged
to get in on the lesson too. Of course, I wasn’t going to say no to her so she
joined in and picked a shell and in the end, we had two beautiful works of art.
The
scripture that went with this lesson was, Exodus 28:2 which says, “God even commanded a decorative pattern to
be put on Aaron’s priestly robe as part of Old Testament worship: ‘And they
made upon the hems of the robe pomegranates of blue, and purple, and scarlet,
and twined linen. And they made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between
the pomegranates; a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, round
about the hem of the robe to minister in; as the LORD commanded Moses’.”
My 4th
grader said, “I really am not that good
at art but I was really excited about how well I did with the lessons. Some
were easier than others. I learned about symmetry, patterns, warm and cool
colors, and so much more. My favorite lesson was the shell lesson. The hardest
lesson was the flower cameos lesson. Drawing the fox with warm and cool colors
was a fun lesson. The warm and cool color lesson where I folded the paper and
then unfolded it was really neat. It was two pictures but with only one piece
of paper.”
My 6th
grader enjoyed working through all of the sections of this workbook. She was
not deterred that two of the sections were below her grade level. In Lesson One
of Grade 6: Two-Point Perspective she not only learned how to draw a three-dimensional
square box but she then learned how to make the box look like it was taking up
more space by using different values through various shading.
My 6th
grader said, “The lesson projects are
unique. The projects are time consuming but always turn out well. My favorite
art project was the shell project because I like nature and the shell designs
are so fascinating and intricate. It is amazing how God creating each and every
shell so unique. Oh, I also really loved the Animal Study in Grade 5, Lesson 8.
I really love animals and so this was definitely a favorite of mine too. I love
the scripture reference that went along with this lesson, Job 12:7-9. The
concepts that I learned in the lessons I have been able to use in other art
projects. I enjoyed all of the lessons. There were not any that I didn’t like
doing. I liked how scripture was brought into the lessons.”
I was
really impressed with this curriculum. The curriculum is not intimidating for
the student or parent with little to no knowledge of art. Lessons are fairly
short and can be completed in one or two sessions depending on your student’s
attentions span. I would definitely recommend this curriculum to others looking
for an art curriculum that does not require the teacher or parent to prepare or
plan ahead for the lesson. Instructions are straight forward and easy to
follow. There really isn’t any about the curriculum that I dislike or feel
needs improvement.
I originally reviewed this product for The Old
Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, March, 2018.
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