The Arts
One of the remarkable aspects of The Core Knowledge Curriculum is its integration of the arts with other Core Knowledge subjects: history, language arts and science, while valuing Art and Music as subjects in their own right. Concepts, skills and techniques, and historical and cultural contexts are taught along with personal production. Students are encouraged to become articulate speakers, and independent and creative thinkers. The Core Knowledge Sequence enables students in Nursery through 5th grade to develop an appreciation of the Arts through exposure to a variety of artists and composers throughout history. Just as the arts reflect a society and give us insight into a culture, Lehrman Community Day School’s Art and Music Programs reveal a multi-talented, well-educated and well-rounded student body.
Our teachers are practicing artists in their own right, giving depth and breath to their instruction and their modeling.
The Core Knowledge Sequence:
Visual Arts
ECD
The use of various media in the pre-school CK sequence provide opportunities for:
• sensory exploration and manipulation
• fine motor skill development
Graphic representation is a precursor to writing.
The examination and discussion of works of art provides practice in:
• focus on visual detail
• opportunities for language development
• identification of images that are the same and different
Kindergarten
I. Elements of Art: Color & Line
II. Sculpture
III. Looking at and talking about works of Art
First Grade
I. Art from Long Ago
A. Cave Paintings
B. Art of Ancient Egypt
II. Elements of Art
A. Color (primary and secondary colors) (Monet, Whistler, Rivera)
B. Line (Jacob Lawrence, Matisse, O’Keefe)
C. Shape (Jacob Lawrence, Grant Wood)
D. Texture (American Indian masks, Degas, Dürer)
E. Portrait, Self-Portrait, Still-Life and Mural
Second Grade
I. Elements of Art
A. Lines: horizontal, vertical, or diagonal
B. Picasso’s Mother and Child; Hokusai, The Great Wave at Kanagawa Nami-Ura
II. Sculpture
A. Shape, mass and line
B. Discus Thrower, Flying Horse (Wu-Wei, China), Rodin’s The Thinker
III. Kinds of Pictures
A. Landscapes
B. Cole, El Greco, Rousseau, van Gogh
IV. Abstract Art
A. Compare lifelike & abstract animals
B. Dürer vs. Klee
V. Architecture
A. Design of buildings
B. Symmetry & a line of symmetry
Third Grade
I. Elements of Art
A. Light: Chapin, Vermeer
B. Space: two-dimensional, three-dimensional (Millet, Bruegel)
C. Design: Figure and Ground; Pattern; Balance & Symmetry (Matisse, Munch, Cassatt)
II. American Indian Art: Kachina dolls; Navajo blankets and rugs, sand paintings; Masks
III. Art of Ancient Rome and Byzantine Civilization: Le Pont du Gard; The Pantheon; Byzantine mosaics; Hagia Sophia.
Fourth Grade
I. Art of the Middle Ages in Europe
A. Religious nature of European Art in Middle Ages (Madonna and Child)
B. Gothic Cathedrals - Notre Dame, Paris
II. Islamic Art and Architecture
III. Art of Africa
IV. Art of China
V. Art and Architecture of Colonial America (Copely, Stuart, Jefferson’s Monticello)
Fifth Grade
I. Art of the Renaissance
A. Shift in World View
B. Influence of Classical Art on Renaissance Artists (Botticelli, daVinci, Michaelangelo, Bruegel)
II. American Art: 19th Century USA III. Art of Japan
Music
ECD
The basic goals of the music program are for the child to:
• listen to and identify sounds
• indicate whether certain sound pairs are the same or different
• imitate sounds and rhythms sequences
• sing songs individually and with others
• move interpretively to music
Kindergarten
I. Elements of Music: rhythm, harmony, etc.
II. Listening and Understanding
III. Songs: Americana
IV. Instrument: Glockenspiel
First Grade
I. Elements of Music: rhythm, harmony, notes.
II. Musical Terms & Concepts
III. American Musical Traditions
IV. Instrument: Glockenspiel
Second Grade
I. Elements of Music
A. Musical Theory
B. Composition – Reading the staff
II. Listening and Understanding
A. The Orchestra
B. Keyboard Instruments
C. Composers and their Music: Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven
III. Songs
IV. Instrument: Recorder
Third Grade
I. Elements of Music
A. Musical Theory
B. Composition
II. Listening and Understanding
A. The Orchestra: add brass to strings, woodwinds and percussion.
B. Composers and Their Music: Tchaikovsky, Sousa, Copland
C. Musical Connections: Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, part one: “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship.”
III. Songs
IV. Instrument: Recorder
Fourth Grade
I. Elements of Music
A. Musical Theory
B. Composition
II. Listening and Understanding
A. The Orchestra: Benjamin Britten: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
B. Vocal Ranges
C. Composers and their Music: Handel, Haydn, Mozart
D. Musical Connections: Gregorian Chants.
III. Songs
IV. Instrument: Classical Guitar
Fifth Grade
I. Elements of Music
A. Musical Theory
B. Compositon
II. Listening and Understanding
A. Composers and their Music: Beethoven, Mussorgsky
B. Musical Connections: Renaissance, Mendelssohn.
III. American Musical Traditions
IV. Songs
V. Instrument: Classical Guitar
