Late Elementary

Late Elementary Students Mature Into Dynamic, Confident Individuals.

4th & 5th Grade

Late Elementary is a crucial stage of development. They are working through complex problems on their own. Your child is becoming more aware of the world beyond their own personal sphere of experience as well as the skills and traits that make them unique. The beliefs – about themselves and the outside world – that they develop during this period will become a core pillar of their identity as an individual.

Our Curriculum

Fourth Grade

4th graders are industrious, curious, and serious about fairness and justice, characteristics we encourage and cultivate.

Fifth Grade

5th graders start thinking about issues from multiple perspectives, begin developing an independent self-image, and love to gather and classify facts.

Our Flex Period

As our students mature, we recognize that making choices and developing independence are important developmental milestones. Flex period allows students to make monthly choices to enhance, support, and/or explore new areas of interest within the academic curriculum. 

Each teacher leads a flex period session. These sessions include academic support, enrichment, additional project time, and club meeting times. Students work with their homeroom teacher to develop an individual monthly schedule for their flex time.

Flex period is built into all 4th- to 8th-grade student schedules. It occurs on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays each week.

For example, a student flex schedule for the first quarter of school may include:

MondayTuesdayThursday
Main SupportWriting EnrichmentFrench Help

Flex options change throughout the year, and students are able to sign up for new sessions each month. Their flex schedule is determined through student interests and needs in addition to teacher and parent input.

Our Navigation Course

Advent’s Navigation course is designed to provide an opportunity for students in grades 5—7 to learn and practice critical life skills for success in and out of the classroom. Each unit of study is broken into 9-week segments (matching the academic quarters). Classes meet once a week during this time and are taught by homeroom teachers and leadership team staff.

Units of Focus:

  • Study Skills — Study skills will focus on developing strong organizational practices, note-taking skills, helpful technological tools, and time management skills, etc.

  • Financial Literacy — Financial literacy will focus on developing skills like money management, savings and investing, credit and debit, wages and salaries, and personal budgets.

  • Public Speaking — Students will develop an appreciation for strong public speaking skills and will learn techniques to improve their own ability to speak in front of a variety of audiences.

  • Nutritional Well Being — This unit will focus on the connection between physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Students will learn to read food labels, will explore the importance of balance, and will learn to evaluate their own healthy habits.

Field Trips

We’ve established field trips as an integral part of our curriculum to allow students to experience learning in real-life settings. Understanding more about the world (and city and state!) around them empowers our students to more deeply understand and apply the concepts they are learning about in the classroom. Our location in the heart of downtown plays a critical role in our ability to expose students in a safe but meaningful way to the amazing resources we have right at our doorstep.