Elementary
Elementary students are active, naturally curious, and eager to learn. On the east side of our 15-acre campus, Corbett Prep's kindergarten through fourth-grade students enjoy learning experiences indoors and outdoors that balance rigorous academics with hands-on lessons, Specials, and enrichment programs.
A positive environment fosters student-led discovery and facilitates cooperative learning. Teachers understand that all students learn differently, and they use strategies that tap into students' multiple intelligences and bring out their unique strengths and talents.Corbett Prep's elementary program includes classroom learning structures that offer and mirror the variety of expectations students will experience in the real world. Developing a dynamic instructional context for learning comes with teaching students the lifelong skill of how to work independently as well as with partners, teams, and small groups.
Our program is challenging, relevant, engaging and stimulating, and kindergarten through fourth grade standards and benchmarks are integrated throughout coursework and IB Units of Inquiry that include Sharing the Planet, Where We Are in Place and Time, How We Express Ourselves, and How We Organize Ourselves.
PYP for Early Years
Using the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) for early years, highly trained Corbett Prep elementary teachers guide students through stimulating units of inquiry designed to reach out to the multiple intelligences and engage all learning styles.
Learn more about how the IB PYP benefits Elementary students.
At a Glance
Elementary school at Corbett Prep includes the Early Primary Division of PreKindergarten and Kindergarten, the Upper Primary Division (first and second grades), and the Intermediate Division (third and fourth grades).
- The elementary curriculum includes the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP), music, art, drama/dance, Spanish, STEAM Application Lab, and physical education.
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Multiage classes provide opportunities for positive peer interactions, collaborative learning, and increased understanding of others.
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After-school programs and weekend competitions with Lego Robotics and Odyssey of the Mind that develop creative critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
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Music classes are part of the Specials rotation with the option for students to go above-and-beyond with third-grade chorus and a spring musical for fourth and fifth grades.
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Fifth graders move to Middle School for a bridge year to conclude their IB PYP journey with a long-term research project, action plan, and presentation on a problem affecting the greater community through Exhibition.
The Multiage Approach
Corbett Prep includes multiage classrooms in addition to graded ones in part of its elementary program.
These classes combine two grade levels, allowing students to work collaboratively and individually. The academic experience is the same as students would experience in a traditional graded classroom – students work at their level with differentiated instruction and certain subjects, such as math, are split by grade. But the approach offers social benefits by giving older students the chance to demonstrate leadership and responsibility as younger students look to them as role models. The classes loop with the same teacher for two years, and the second year, the younger students find themselves in the shoes of veterans, modeling the behavior they admired the previous year. The longer time with the same teacher also improves the level of trust between students and teachers and increases understanding of expectations.
All first- and second-grade classes are multiage, and third- and fourth-grade classes offer the option of multiage or traditional graded.
“I could honestly keep going on and on about how happy we are to be at Corbett, but since we've got so many more years ahead of us to do that, I'll stop myself now and just say thank you to every one of you for what you do and for giving my girls this opportunity.”Ashley, Mother of Two