I am reviewing Spears Art Studio, Inc. K-8 Christian Art Curriculum. This is a God-honoring complete art curriculum for K-8. What I like most of the curriculum is that it is divided by months and each month is centered on a topic. You will not find jack-o-lanterns here or Santa Claus, thankfully.The version I have is in PDF form. There is a printed form available too, as an option. The PDF form is great because you are able to print out enough copies that you need for your family.
The curriculum gives a great introduction, scope and sequence and appendix, which is very important to read through before beginning the program. The introduction gives in depth directions on how to do many of the projects (such as how to set up a still like or how to watercolor paint.) The scope and sequence is very detailed for each grade level. There is a visual art glossary and supply list in the appendix. I really appreciated the student evaluation criteria supplied as I never really new how to grade art projects. It also helps you to see if you are meeting your intended goals for the project.
Each month is grouped into one PDF file. There is a table of contents for each file with a months worth of activities. Each week/month is based on a theme. There are ten more or less activities for each week grouped by grade. Some activities were grouped together. For example in September week 1 there are a few activities for ALL levels to do together, then grades k, 1, 2, 1-2, 3, 4, 5, 3-5, 6, 7, 8, 7-8, etc.
This is one of the few Christian art curriculums where I have found that you begin the lesson with a bible lesson. We did the month of October for this review. An example of how our lessons went: for week 1 the bible verse was Mark 4:3-20. This lead us to a discussion on the sower. There is a lot of support and encouragement in bible lesson for the teacher. We then looked up the art paintings suggested online and discussed those. We all (including me!) worked on the same grade level for the project we did. We are really art challenged here, so we did a lower level project.
For December there is a Advent Calendar Project for all grade levels we are working on. There are many craft and gift ideas included for the month of December as well. Topics for March include Spring, Wind (making a weathervane, a Spiral Wind Hanger etc.,) and Easter (making Easter cards, banners, etc.) Other months include activities with sculpting, weaving, graphic design, mixed media painting, color blending, sewing, origami, and more.
Overall I felt confident to teach art using this program. The author does recommend some outside books if you want to supplement some drawing lessons. We have utilized some books to help with simple drawing techniques which have been helpful.
Spears Art Studio K-8 Christian Art Curriculum would make a great addition to any homeschool. The lesson plans are simple and easy to follow, telling you exactly what you need and what to do. Also, this would probably be all you would need for grades K-8 as each year you would do the next level activity, which is different from the year before.
K-8 Christian Art Curriculum
A Teachers Manual
- 35 Weekly Themes
- 269 Art Activities
- 137 Patterns and Display Posters
- 497 Pages
- Scriptual Connections
- Art History Connections & More
(((Spear High School Review I will add on here ASAP.)))
No comments:
Post a Comment