Literature and Fine Arts - Curriculum

ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM- LITERATURE AND FINE ARTS

TOPICS

1. SPELLING

1. We can try having weekly spelling bees to practice words that are challenging for their age group

2. Some sites for spelling words:

i. http://www.spelling-words-well.com/

ii. http://www.delano.k12.mn.us/elementary-school/gradesstaff/fourth-grade/fourth-grade-spelling-lists

2. VOCABULARY

1. We can easily integrate vocabulary with spelling in lesson plans and also in questions

2. Sites:

i. http://dynamo.dictionary.com/62/4th-grade-vocabulary-words

ii. http://www.readingkey.com/demo/Files/vocab/Grade4/Voc4new.pdf

3. GRAMMAR

1. Parts of speeches

i. noun

ii. adjective

iii. adverb

iv. verb

v. preposition

vi. pronoun

vii. conjunction

viii. interjection

2. Parts of a sentence

i. Subject-what the sentence is about

ii. Predicate-tells something about the subject

4. PUNCTUATION

1. Commas

i. Before a coordinating conjunction

ii. After an introductory adverb clause

iii. To separate items in a series

2. Semicolon

i. Link independent clauses

ii. Only where a period could go

3. End punctuation

i. Period

ii. Exclamation mark

iii. Question mark

5. CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

1. Oglethorpe Elementary School required reading: http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/Oglethorpe.cfm?subpage=38413

2. Alps Road Elem School: http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/Alps.cfm?subpage=43826

6. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

1. Strings

i. Violin

ii. Viola

iii. Cello

iv. Double bass

v. guitar

2. Brass

i. Trumpet

ii. Trombone

iii. French horn

iv. Tuba

3. Woodwinds

i. Flute

ii. Piccolo

iii. oboe

iv. Clarinet

v. Bassoon

vi. Saxophone

4. Percussion

i. Drums

ii. Bells

iii. Xylophone

iv. Gong

v. Triangle

5. Keyboard

i. Piano

ii. keyboard

7. BASIC LITERATURE ELEMENTS

1. Types of literature

i. Autobiography: A writer’s story of his or her own life.

ii. Biography: A writer’s account of some other person’s life.

iii. Comedy: Writing that deals with life in a humorous way, often poking fun at people’s mistakes.

iv. Drama: Also called a play. This writing form uses dialogue to share its message and is meant to be performed in front of an audience.

v. Essay: A short piece of nonfiction that expresses the writer’s opinion or shares information about a subject.

vi. Fable: A short story that often uses talking animals as the main characters and teaches an explicit moral or lesson.

vii. Fantasy: A story set in an imaginary world in which the characters usually have supernatural powers or abilities.

viii. Folktale: A story originally passed from one generation to another by word of mouth only. The characters are usually all good or all bad and in the end are rewarded or punished as they deserve.

ix. Historical Fiction: A made-up story that is based on a real time and place in history, so fact is mixed with fiction.

x. Myth: A traditional story intended to explain some mystery of nature, religious doctrine, or cultural belief. The gods and goddesses of mythology have supernatural powers, but the human characters usually do not.

xi. Novel: A book-length, fictional prose story. Because of its length, a novel’s characters and plot are usually more developed than those of a short story.

xii. Poetry: A literary work that uses concise, colorful, often rhythmic language to express ideas or emotions. Examples: ballad, blank verse, free verse, elegy, limerick, sonnet.

xiii. Prose: A literary work that uses the familiar spoken form of language, sentence after sentence.

xiv. Realistic Fiction: Writing that attempts to show life as it really is.

xv. Science Fiction: Writing based on real or imaginary scientific developments and often set in the future.

xvi. Short Story: Shorter than a novel, this piece of literature can usually be read in one sitting. Because of its length, it has only a few characters and focuses on one problem of conflict.

xvii. Tall Tale: A humorous, exaggerated story often based on the life of a real person. The exaggerations build until the character can accomplish impossible things.

2. Fiction elements

i. Action: Everything that happens in a story.

ii. Antagonist: The person or force that works against the hero of the story. (See protagonist.)

iii. Character: One of the people (or animals) in a story.

iv. Climax: The high point or climax in the action of a story.

v. Conflict: A problem or struggle between two opposing forces in a story. Here are the four basic conflicts:

· person against person—a problem between characters

· person against self—a problem within a character’s own mind

· person against society—a problem between a character and society, school, the law, or some tradition

· person against nature—a problem between a character and some element of nature—a blizzard, a hurricane, a mountain climb, etc.

vi. Dialogue: The conversations that characters have with one another.

vii. Exposition: The part of the story, usually near the beginning, in which the characters are introduced, the background is explained, and the setting is described.

viii. Falling Action: The action and dialogue following the climax that lead the reader into the story’s end.

ix. Mood: The feeling a piece of literature creates in a reader.

x. Moral: The lesson a story teaches.

xi. Narrator: The person or character who actually tells the story, filling in the background information and bridging the gaps between dialogue. (See point of view.)

xii. Plot: The action that makes up the story, following a plan called the plot line.

xiii. Plot Line: The planned action or series of events in a story. There are five parts: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

xiv. Protagonist: The main character in a story, often a good or heroic type.

xv. Resolution: The part of the story in which the problems are solved and the action comes to a satisfying end.

xvi. Rising Action: The central part of the story during which various problems arise.

xvii. Setting: The place and the time frame in which a story takes place.

xviii. Theme: The message about life or human nature that is “the focus” in the story that the writer tells.

8. FAMOUS PLAYS AND FAIRY TALES

1. Little Red Riding Hood- Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH) went to the forest to visit her ill granny. She took some cake and lemonade in a basket. She met a wicked wolf that asked her which path she was taking. She replied, ‘I’m taking the path that leads to my granny’s cottage.’

While LRRH was busy picking flowers to take to her granny, the wolf went to the cottage and swallowed granny in one gulp. Then the wolf put on granny’s cap, got in granny’s bed, covered up in blankets, and settled in to wait. LRRH arrived at the cottage and came into granny’s bedroom. She said, ‘Granny what big ears you have,’ and the wolf replied ‘All the better to hear you with, my dear.’ And so on with Granny’s eyes: ‘All the better to see you with, my dear,’ and teeth: ‘all the better to eat you with, my dear.’

The wolf swallowed LLRH in one gulp and then fell asleep. A woodsman came by while the wolf was still asleep. The woodsman cut the wolf open with his ax and out popped Granny and LRRH. Then the woodsman, Granny, and LRRH all sat down by the fire and enjoyed cake and lemonade.

2. Three Little Pigs- A wolf looking for food finds three pigs, each one having their own home made of straw, sticks and finally, bricks. The wolf knocks on each door, threatening to blow their house down. The pigs with the straw and sticks fall victim to the wolf's threat. The homeless pigs take refuge in the third pig's house and the wolf is not able to blow the brick house down. Tired, the wolf gives up and leaves.

3. Goldilocks and the Three Bears- There once was a family of bears: mama bear, papa bear, and baby bear. They were just about to eat their lunch, but their porridge was too hot, so they went for a walk in the woods. Just then a little girl named Goldilocks came upon their house and went inside. She saw the three bowls of porridge on the table and tasted some from each bowl. The big bowl was too hot, the medium-sized bowl was too cold, but the smallest bowl was just right, so she ate it all up.

The she saw three chairs and decided to sit down. The big chair was too hard, the medium-sized chair was too soft, but the little chair was just right. As Goldilocks was getting comfortable in the smallest chair, it broke. So, she went in the next room and found the beds. The big bed was too hard, the medium-sized bed was too soft, but the little bed was just right, and Goldilocks fell last asleep.

Just then, the three bears came home to find their house in a mess. Papa bear said, ‘Someone’s been eating my porridge.’ Mama bear said the same thing, and baby bear said, ‘Someone’s been eating my porridge, and they ate it all up!’ Then they saw the chairs and papa bear said, ‘Someone’s been sitting in my chair.’ Mama bear said the same thing, and then baby bear said, ‘Someone’s been sitting in my chair, and they broke it!’

Then they went into the next room and found Goldilocks asleep in baby bear’s bed. When she awoke, she was so frightened she ran out of the bears’ house and didn’t stop running till she got home.

4. Hansel and Gretel-

Hansel and Gretel were brother and sister. Their poor parents were starving, so they went out in search of food. They took one slice of bread along, which they used to mark a path back to their home by leaving crumbs along the way. After a while, they came upon a little house made of gingerbread. Hansel broke off a piece to eat.

Suddenly, the door flew open and an old woman came out and invited them in. She fed them mountains of pancakes and fruit, and then tucked them into bed to sleep. What Hansel and Gretel didn’t realize was that the old woman was fattening them up so she could use them in her favorite dish ñ roasted child! Now they were prisoners, and the old woman kept feeding them, and when she asked them to stick their fingers out of their cell so she could judge how fat they were getting, Hansel held out a bone instead.

Finally, the children escaped and pushed the old woman into the oven. They filled their pockets with jewels and food and used the trail of bread crumbs to find their way back home, where they lived happily ever after.

5. Cinderella- There once was a widower who remarried. His second wife was ill-natured, and she had two daughters who were just as unpleasant as their mother. The man had a beautiful, gentle daughter of his own, and she was soon to become the servant of her evil step-mother and step-sisters. They made her do all the chores around the house, and she was named Cinderella, after the cinders she swept out of the fireplace.

The King needed to find a queen for his prince, so he threw a huge ball. The evil step-mother and step-sisters were invited, but Cinderella was not allowed to go. After they left, Cinderella’s fairy godmother appeared and changed her dirty rags into a beautiful gown with glass slippers. Next the fairy godmother changed a pumpkin into a coach and some mice into footmen. Before Cinderella left, the fairy godmother warned her to be home before midnight, because the spell would only last till then.

Cinderella was a hit at the ball. The prince fell in love with her and asked her name. Just then the clock struck midnight, and Cinderella ran away. She was in such a hurry, she lost one of her glass slippers. It was the only clue the prince had to find his true love. He went to every home in the kingdom and had every single young girl try on the slipper to see if it fit. The evil step-sisters couldn’t fit the slipper, but Cinderella did. The prince married her and they all lived happily ever after.

6. Jack and the Beanstalk- Jack and his mother were hungry. The cow in the barn gave them milk, but they needed food. Jack’s mother said, ‘We must sell the cow to get some food.’ Jack volunteered to take the cow to town. Along the way, Jack met a farmer who talked him into giving up the cow in exchange for a handful of good luck beans.

When Jack returned home, his mother was very cross because they lost their cow for a few beans. She threw the beans out the window and went to bed. The beans began to grow straight up into the sky, so Jack climbed the beanstalk hoping to find good luck at the top.

Instead, he found himself in a giant’s castle. The giant was counting his money and singing ‘fee fie foe fum, I like children in my tum.’ The giant’s wife helped Jack hide so the giant wouldn’t eat him. Then Jack realized something and said, ‘Hey, this giant stole my father’s money!’ The giant’s wife said, ‘This magic hen and golden harp used to belong to your father too. Play the harp, and then run!’

Jack played the harp, and the giant fell asleep. Jack grabbed the money and the hen and started running. But on the way outside, he knocked over the harp and woke the giant up. The giant chased Jack all the way down the beanstalk chanting ‘fee fie foe fum’ etc. When Jack reached the bottom, he chopped down the beanstalk with an ax. The giant was no more. Then the magic hen clucked and laid a golden egg. Jack’s mother, awakened by all the noise, took the golden egg, put it with the money, and said, ‘Now we’ll have something nice to eat.’

7. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory