Fourth Grade Curriculum: Bible, Art, and Music

Last year (and throughout the summer) we read through the New Testament. This year we're going to start with the book of Proverbs for the first two months. After that we'll begin reading in Genesis. At some point in the past I was able to download this Old Testament timeline as a freebie ebook. In it the student uses stick figures to help take them through the layout of the Old Testament. It's really cute and provides memory cues.

(Link)

In December we'll take a break from the OT reading and go through the Advent story. We did this last year and J wanted to do it again, he enjoyed it so much. I've also got a couple of activity books for Easter that I may go through.

Art

In the past we've studied artists and done lots of crafts using wonderful books such as MaryAnn F. Kohl's Discovering Great Artists. You can see examples of J's artwork using that book HERE, HERE,and HERE,

This year we're going to concentrate on increasing his drawing skills using some "how to draw" books to give him new techniques.  It's a good thing I've got a lot of paper. 

MUSIC

I play the piano, so I will continue to give J piano lessons. Regardless of a person's natural abilities regarding music, my opinion is that at least one year of piano lessons is a useful thing to anyone. Therefore, J will be taking lessons until. It's good for him! If he wants to write his own music in the future, knowing how to play the piano will make that a lot easier.

His true love, though, is the drums.

My husband plays the trumpet, guitar, violin, and has a fantastic singing voice. I play the piano, flute, and have a mediocre singing voice. What does our son, our only child, our flesh and blood want to play? The drums.

So, for this year we're going to use a video series for lessons. He has a natural aptitude for them (I might try to upload an audio some time if you're game), but I can take him only so far. Soon we'll need to get someone to teach him actually knows what they're doing!

The final post for this series will be about my intention to cover many facets of language.