Series

Devine Entertainment Specials

15 episodes

Hour-long live-action dramas from Toronto-based Devine Entertainment, made in the 1990s in three sets: composers, painters, and inventors. Each film sets a real figure beside an invented child who works at their elbow, so the history arrives through a relationship rather than narration. The subjects include Bach, Handel, Liszt, Degas, Monet, Mary Cassatt, Rembrandt, Galileo, Newton, Edison, Marie Curie, and Einstein. The composer films are scored with that composer's own music. Several won or were nominated for Emmys. At 48 to 60 minutes one film fills a class period; upper-elementary teachers should preview for period hardship, wartime injury, and era racism.

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what this series covers

What Devine Entertainment Specials covers

15 episodes in the library, tagged for 3rd–6th. Heaviest coverage: Social Studies, Art and Music. Between them they line up with 18 distinct standards across 3 frameworks.

Episodes per grade

3rd: 15
4th: 15
5th: 15
6th: 15

Episodes per subject

Social Studies: 15
Art: 5
Music: 5
Science: 5

NGSS (Science) 7

3-5-ETS1-1Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
3-5-ETS1-2Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
3-5-ETS1-3Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
3-PS2-1Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.
3-PS2-2Make observations and/or measurements of an object's motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.
4-PS4-3Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information.

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5-ESS1-2Represent data in graphical displays to reveal patterns of daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky.

Social Studies (C3 / NCSS) 4

D2.His.2.3-5Compare life in specific historical time periods to life today.
D2.His.3.3-5Generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped significant historical changes and continuities.
D2.Civ.14.3-5Illustrate historical and contemporary means of changing society.
D2.His.4.3-5Explain why individuals and groups during the same historical period differed in their perspectives.

National Core Arts 7

MU:Cn11.0.4aDemonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.
MU:Re7.2.4aDemonstrate and explain how responses to music are informed by the structure, the use of the elements of music, and context (such as social and cultural).
VA:Cn11.1.4Through observation, infer information about time, place, and culture in which a work of art was created.
VA:Re8.1.4Interpret art by referring to contextual information and analyzing relevant subject matter, characteristics of form, and use of media.
DA:Cn11.1.4aSelect and describe movements in a specific genre or style and explain how the movements relate to the culture, society, historical period, or community from which the dance originated.
TH:Cn11.2.4bCompare the drama/theatre conventions of a given time period with those of the present.

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