We believe that art contributes to, and enhances, all other aspects of a child’s education. The mission of the Odyssey Art program is to foster confidence and expand creative thinking and self-expression through the visual arts. Students will explore art history and create art with different mediums. Because we are a public school, the Odyssey Art curriculum is aligned with the Georgia Standards of Excellence for Visual Art.

Music Program

The music program at Odyssey Charter School brings to life the soundtrack of each student’s daily routine. Maintaining a balance between traditional and contemporary repertoire, students are encouraged to excel at studying multiple instruments to fulfill the needs of a variety of performance pieces. All ensemble members perform at the holiday concert, Spring concert, and presentations at various local nursing homes and assisted living facilities throughout the year. K-4 students receive music instruction for 45 minutes each week as part of the Specials rotation. Our goal is to teach the students the language of music to prepare them for future musical endeavors.

K-3rd Grade

Music Theory is the study of the structure of music. We begin teaching the fundamental elements in our K-3rd grade classes. Students learn about rhythm, melody, harmony, and literacy as they read and perform music notation at their developmental level. Our diverse repertoire includes a variety of ways to participate in music as scholars sing, move, play instruments and evaluate music.

4th-5th Grades

In 4th grade, students progress further into music theory and deeper into reading notation. In the first semester, they begin using recorders as part of the Recorder Karate curriculum.  As students advance through progressively more difficult songs, they earn colored tassels equivalent to karate belts as a positive reward. This fun method motivates scholars to learn more and more difficult songs as they progress towards “black belt” by the end of the year. There is a recorder fee of $7, which includes the recorder, the Recorder Karate book as well as some additional sheet music. 

In semester two, 4th graders are introduced to more advanced percussion, woodwind and string instruments. Scholars will choose between glockenspiel, clarinet or ukulele to develop an ensemble that can collaborate to perform a variety of repertoire. There is a fee of $10 for clarinet players, which includes the use of their personal mouthpiece. 

Middle School Music

Band

With a focus on woodwinds, brass, and percussion, Band students enjoy making the acquaintance of an instrument that quickly becomes a means of daily expression. Practices of good tone and technique are established early in the year as scholars mature their understanding of the language of music. Most importantly, Band is fun!

All ensemble members perform at the holiday concert, spring concert, and presentations at various local nursing homes and assisted living facilities throughout the year. Over the years, Odyssey students have earned spots in the Coweta County District Honor Band and many more continue to play in their high school and college bands.

Practice Requirements

Students are required to practice 100 minutes per week on their own time (after school) as part of their student centered learning process. There may also occasionally be after school practices before performances to ensure that students are well-prepared.  Those times will be scheduled as needed by the band director.

Band Instruments

Odyssey owns various musical instruments including clarinets, flutes, trumpets, trombones, baritones, drums and bell kits.  Students may use these instruments provided they purchase their own mouthpiece. Percussion students playing snare drum will need to provide their own drum.  Otherwise, students may rent or purchase instruments from Music & Arts (Peachtree City) which rent student instruments. Also parents are advised to check online (Craigslist/Amazon/Ebay/OfferUp) and area pawn shops which frequently have instruments for sale.

Odyssey will also gladly accept donations of instruments! Please contact the Band Director if you have any questions or you have an instrument that you would like to donate.

Ukulele and Guitar

With a focus on ensemble playing and singing, middle school students enjoy making the acquaintance of an instrument that quickly becomes a means of daily expression. Practices of good tone and technique are established early in the semester as students mature their understanding of the language of music. Most importantly, Ukulele is fun!

As an enrichment class, the Ukulele and Guitar ensemble is a scholar-led, interest-based course. No prior musical knowledge or skills are necessary to participate in this class. Scholars learn the basics of the instrument including instrument care, correct posture and sound production, correct fingerings and position, practice habits, scales, and strumming patterns. After these skills are assessed and mastered, scholars choose repertoire and create arrangements that include other classroom instruments in addition to the ukuleles and guitars.

Students in grades K-5 receive PE instruction one time per week for 50 minutes. Students in grades 6-8 receive PE instruction in a block schedule format. Therefore, each middle school student will have PE for 50 minutes per day, every day, for an entire 9 week period. Students in all grades learn the basic skills in sports such as soccer, volleyball, and basketball. We also incorporate original and traditional games. Lessons are created based on the Georgia Standards  for Physical Education, which are themselves based on the National Physical Education Standards set forth by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.

In addition, students in grades 1-8 are required to participate in part or all of the state required FitnessGram Assessment. FitnessGram is the most widely used health-related physical fitness assessment. It does not measure skill or agility but instead measures various components of fitness and physical activity levels in our students. These components include aerobic capacity, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility and body composition. Assessment results help to inform students and parents and allow us to develop lessons that will most benefit our students.

Odyssey Charter School provides Spanish language instruction for students beginning in kindergarten.  K-5th grade students receive instruction for 45 minutes one day a week for the entire school year. Because Middle School works on block scheduling, 6th-8th grade students receive instruction for 45 minutes every day for an entire 9-week period.

Our Spanish program is not a full immersion class, meaning the teacher does not speak solely in Spanish for the entire class period. Instead, it is a bilingual class. The teacher speaks in Spanish and then provides the English translation. Over time, the students become familiar with the sentences used every day and their Spanish vocabulary increases, so the need for everything to be translated into English subsides. In this way, we build fluency while relieving the students of some of the frustrations of full immersion instruction.

K – 1st:

Maker’s Space- Tinkering and making are powerful ways to learn. Add in peer engagement, stimulating manipulatives, and the imagination of young scholars; the seeds of the Engineering Design and Computational Thinking begin taking root!

Kindergarten and First grade students are presented with the opportunity to establish their ability to communicate, collaborate, harbor creativity and to think critically while exploring manipulatives and materials that encourage crucial fine-motor development.

Technology- Scholars learn how to operate, care for, and store their devices properly.

Coding- Computational thinking is developed using both digital and unplugged coding challenges. Primary focus is on developing a strong computational vocabulary and basic understanding of sequence and algorithms.

Keyboarding- Scholars engage in activities designed to teach the home-row keys location.  Letter recognition, fine-motor development, and proper keyboarding posture are focal points.

2nd:

Technology- Scholars build upon their operational skill-set by learning how to create and organize bookmarks, locate Google apps, and troubleshoot minor technical issues encountered on their
devices.

Coding- Identification and accurate implementation of flow-control structures and debugging ‘buggy’ programs are milestones at this level.

Keyboarding- Practice learning the keys above, below, and beside the home-row begins as scholars begin covering their hands while completing keyboarding exercises.
Engineering Design Cycle

LEGO BricQ Motion- Proper organization and handling procedures of LEGO kit components precede hands-on challenges of building moving structures. Scholars are learning the foundations of engineering
and step-by-step construction of simple robots.

3rd – 4th:

Technology- Scholars at these levels focus on troubleshooting technical issues, creating bookmark folders, clearing the cache, and deleting unnecessary desktop items. Identification of device
components is a primary focal point.

Coding- Guided and independent program development exercises challenge scholars’ knowledge of flow-control structures and design-thinking skills. Object-oriented programming and game
development are introduced.

Keyboarding- Keyboarding with hands covered is a milestone. Special keys, keyboard shortcuts, function keys and hotkeys are identified and utilized.
Engineering Design Cycle

LEGO BricQ Motion & SPIKE Essential- BricQ Motion and programming skill-sets are refined as scholars collaborate and begin building and programming robotic structures using SPIKE Essential.

5th – 8th
Computer Literacy:

Technology- Investigation of new and existing technologies, digital citizenship, and basic tool instruction are key features at this level.

Coding- Scholars implement block-based scripting languages to create and debug algorithms. The basics of HTML and CSS are used in simple website development.

Engineering Design Cycle:

LEGO BricQ Motion Prime & SPIKE Prime- Construction of complex moving structures powered by block based programming coincide with scholars’ abilities to communicate, create, collaborate and think critically.

Enrichment:

CAD software & 3D-printing- Scholars receive hands-on instruction and experience operating and maintaining a variety of 3D print machines. Computational and design-thinking expand with use of CAD software to create useful and innovative 3D prints and products.