The arts

Learn to Create

Create to Learn

Our unique approach to arts integration allows the arts to support classroom learning and classroom learning to support the arts.

The Arts

The arts form the foundation of the culture of Genesee Community Charter School, playing a critical role in creating a warm, inviting, collaborative atmosphere in which students develop their social and academic skills and strengthen their capacity for self-expression.

Music, visual arts, dance, and creative movement are a central part of each child’s social and academic development and each learning expedition at the school.  Through the arts, students learn to express their understanding creatively at a literal, historical and cultural, and conceptual level. The arts allow students to reinforce and extend their insights into the concepts and content they are studying in the classroom.

Students engage in the creative process to explore connections between music, visual arts, dance and creative movement and another subject area to gain greater understanding in both. The experience is mutually reinforcing and provides an authentic context for students to learn more content, and as students delve deeper into the content, their growing understandings deepen their artistic expression.

GCCS Arts Integration

Music

Children are immersed in music, both in the classroom and in their weekly music class. Taught using the Orff-Schulwerk approach, they sing, play, compose, and dance their understanding of complex expedition content. They experience music from many different peoples and places, and are exposed to a wide variety of musical forms, such as opera, jazz, and African drumming. By the time children leave GCCS, they have learned to create and appreciate music and are equipped with musical tools that will help them succeed in other musical endeavors.

Drumming pic

Physical Expedition

Our physical expedition program emphasizes movement, dance, and collaborative games. Through movement, children learn to use their bodies to express the content and concepts of their expeditions. Children are taught to choreograph their own movement pieces, in addition to learning the basics of yoga, capoeira, ballet, tap, and modern dance. They also learn healthy habits of fitness by building balance, strength, endurance, and flexibility. Some attention is given to traditional sports, particularly at the upper grades. Sports and games are woven into the curriculum as students explore historic and global recreation traditions.

2017 Global Water Dance

Visual Arts

Our focus on local history naturally lends itself to integrating visual arts into learning expeditions. Field studies give children ample opportunities to exercise and improve their skills in observing, narrating, and visually recording what they have learned. In addition, students create artistic representations during daily class work and weekly classes in art. A series of artworks, for example, might represent several iterations of their thinking and problem solving around specific content or concepts.

Click on an image to view slideshow.

Apply Today!

Please see the Student Admissions Page for more information about our 2024-25 application process.