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    Tuition-Free K-5 Public Charter School • Inspired Learning
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    Committed to Academic Excellence & the Education of the Whole Child
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    Grade "A" school • Florida's First Healthy, High Performance School

The Educational Program

The School’s curriculum meets or exceeds the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards/FL B.E.S.T. Benchmarks in all subject areas. The curriculum is developmentally appropriate, comprehensive, interdisciplinary and hands-on. The curriculum is designed to develop the whole child and to meet the educational needs of children at the kindergarten through high school ages of development. The educational program will afford students opportunities to interact with one another and their environment, apply learning to real-life situations, and use a variety of technological tools beyond the classroom

Montessori Preschool

The Montessori Preschool classrooms are “living rooms” for children. Children choose their work from materials on open shelves and work in specific work areas. The surrounding environment and materials help them to achieve concentration, independence, and self-mastery. In a Montessori preschool, materials are viewed as an aid to development, enticing the child to explore and learn while developing inner motivation.

There are four main areas within the preschool classroom:

  • Practical Life – the child learns how to take care of himself, others, and the indoor and outdoor environment.
  • Sensorial Area – Aids the child in the development of the ability to order, classify, and describe sensorial impressions.
  • Mathematics Area – The child progresses through a sequence of manipulative materials that enable them to internalize concepts of quantity, symbol, mathematical operations, and the memorization of basic math facts.
  • Language Arts – An integral part of each area of the classroom but also has a special area in and of itself. Basic skills in reading and writing are developed through use of the sandpaper letters, moveable alphabet, and specially designed Montessori materials and exercises.
Kindergarten, First and Second Grades

The early elementary program offers a continuum built upon the preschool experience and incorporates the FL B.E.S.T. Benchmarks. Students learn about the interdependence of all life and develop an awareness of the basic needs of all mankind and an appreciation for the variety of ways in which those needs are met. The elementary environment reflects a new stage of development and offers:

  • Integration of the arts, sciences, geography, history, and language.
  • Presentation of knowledge as part of a large-scale narrative that unfolds the origin of Earth, life, human communities, and modern history. Montessori presents the whole universe to the child in a series of five major stories, The Great Lessons.
  • Presentation of formal scientific language of zoology, botany, anthropology, geography, geology, etc., exposing the child to accurate, organized information.
  • The use of timelines, pictures, charts, and other visual aids, which allows the child to discover the interrelatedness of all living things.
  • A mathematics curriculum presented with concrete materials that enhance the understanding of the concepts in arithmetic, geometry, and algebra, with the purpose of moving the child from the concrete to the abstract.
  • Teachers who integrate the teaching of all subjects, not as isolated disciplines, but as a part of a whole.
Grades Three through Five

Our academic focus in the elementary program is to strengthen the student’s basic and critical thinking skills while learning to conduct research projects. Emphasis will be upon open-ended research and in-depth study, and may include field trips and interactive studies to make use of community resources beyond the classroom.

As in the Montessori philosophy, subjects continue to integrate in a way that provides students with an interrelated view of the world and the opportunity to begin thinking about their role as world citizens. Teachers provide a rigorous language arts program enriched with cross-curricular books in literature circles. Students continue to learn about history and geography through the reading of historical fiction as well as non-fiction.

Junior High Programs

Odyssey Charter School offers developmentally appropriate courses and programs to meet the unique needs of students in the middle grades and beyond.

  • Growth as independent learners
  • A close knit school environment
  • Curriculum integration through teaching teams
  • Development of individualized interests through choice of research
  • Opportunities to study in-depth topics, relate them to today’s society, and formulate opinions on issues
  • Honors and advanced, accelerated programs

The academic program focuses on:

  • Global citizenship
  • Skills in research, report writing, public speaking and debate
  • Timelines of historical and scientific advancements
  • Encouragement of disciplined thought on individual and global issues
  • Individualized learning plan to strengthen problem-solving and computation in abstract and practical situations
Links

Standards and Instructional Support

Educational Plan

Elementary Program of Studies K-2nd Grade

Elementary Program of Studies 3rd-5th Grade