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 4^th and 6^th grade daughters. They both thoroughly enjoyed the lessons. My 4^th 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 4^th grader was working on this lesson my 6^th 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 4^th 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 6^th 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 6^th 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.

-Product review by Jennifer Ladewig, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, March, 2018