Lower School at Wheeler
Learning—and learning how to learn—begins in our Lower School. With The Nest Preschool for 2.9 – 5-year-olds, Early Childhood Kindergarten, and an Elementary Education Division for Grades 1-5, Wheeler’s Lower School sparks the joy of learning. With our expert faculty, your child will build reading, math, language, and more skills in a safe, trusting, and fun campus environment. (Please note, Kindergarten applicants must be five (5) years old by August 31.)
Our Goal
Wheeler’s Lower School’s goal is to support your child in developing the academic skills, personal awareness, and emotional resilience necessary to be a successful learner and valued member of the community.
Our Program
Wheeler Lower School offers a creative, joyful learning experience built on an enriched daily program responsive to your child. Our signature Aerie Approach enables every student to discover, explore, and develop personal interests and academic passions that go beyond the curriculum. The experienced teachers in our Lower School are extraordinary, enthusiastic, creative, and deeply invested in your child’s success. As a community, students learn to adapt to and work with the full range of emotions, develop greater self-awareness, and, through reflection, discover and embrace their own evolving identities. Students also learn to cultivate healthy relationships through compassion, inclusion, and valuing multiple perspectives.
Our Community
A defining aspect of Wheeler’s Lower School is its strong sense of community. At weekly Community Meetings, grade levels may perform or exhibit their work as well as listen and learn from each other. In addition, Lower School has a buddy system between older and younger grades to build these community connections. Special events bring all students from Kindergarten-Grade 12 together. Two memorable bookend moments take place each year. At the Opening School Assembly, our Senior Class walks hand in hand with Early Childhood students to the seats of honor. These students create the backdrop while the Head of School presents a Welcome Back to School address. At Field Day each spring, the March of Purples and Golds leads off as Seniors again link hands with our youngest students to walk onto the field at the Wheeler Farm. Field Day is the oldest continuous Wheeler tradition, and our students love it.
Contact the Head of Lower School Kate Hewitt
Lower School Administration
See Our Stories
We already knew Donna Lizotte was the best biology teacher in the land (and the lab), but now it’s official! Please join us in congratulating her for being named RI’s 2026 Outstanding Biology Teacher Awardee (OBTA) by the National Association of Biology Teachers!
The OBTA recognizes the best biology and life science teacher in each of the 50 states, Washington, DC, the Canadian provinces, Puerto Rico, and overseas territories.
In sharing the news of the award with Dr. Lizotte, NABT Region Coordinator Don Pinkerton said her teaching peers “welcome you to the tradition of excellence that represents the OBTA.”
Dr. Lizotte has established a tradition of excellence in her Upper School classes as well. “Donna’s dedication to her students and to the Biology program at Wheeler is remarkable,” said Science Department Chair Sarah Berthiaume Leduc. “Over the past decade, she has created the Molecular Biology program from the ground up and grown it into one of the Wheeler Science Department’s signature programs. Through her vision and determination, she has created incredible opportunities for countless students, inspired a love of science, and developed a program that is a source of pride for our school.”
The NABT will celebrate Dr. Lizotte and her fellow awardees this October at its annual conference in Dallas.
“I am honored to be recognized by NABT with this award,” Dr. Lizotte told us after returning from the Global Experience trip to the Galápagos Islands, which she led. “I am truly passionate about introducing my students to Biology and Molecular Biology, and their enthusiasm and curiosity to learn inspire me every day. I feel so lucky to have spent the majority of my teaching career at Wheeler, where I have had the opportunity to grow and learn from so many truly amazing colleagues.”
By the way, there will soon be another reason for Dr. Lizotte – and her students – to celebrate, when they welcome a few new exciting pieces of equipment to the Molecular Biology course next school year, including a shaking water bath, a photo-documentation imaging system, and a Trans-Blot Turbo Transfer System. We’ll have more on those experiment enhancements in a future story!
Jul 6
Happy Fourth of July! ❤️🤍💙
Just in time for the holiday, the blooms across our Providence campus are showing off their own red, white, and blue (with a few Wheeler purple hues, too!). 🌸🌼
Wishing our Wheeler community a safe, joyful, and relaxing Independence Day weekend!
Jul 4
With the temperature soaring, this is a great time to sign up for a Summer Pass to Wheeler’s new Swim Center! 💦
For just $500 for a half summer membership, you can enjoy our picturesque pools, along with everything else Wheeler Farm has to offer, from pickleball and tennis courts to expansive and shady nature trails. Day passes are available as well.
You don’t have to be a member of the Wheeler community to take advantage of this offer: Summer Passes are open to all! ☀️
Visit wheelersummercamp.com/family-pass to learn more and register.
Jun 30
We’re joining longtime PE teacher, Coach Eric Stein, for this post to remember a furry and fast-moving face that was familiar to many of us who frequented the farm: Coach Stein’s beloved dog, Knox. Sadly, Knox recently passed away.
“He had a tremendous life, and Wheeler was a daily part of it from his time as a puppy and through the majority of his 14 ½-year-life,” Coach Stein shares. “The first nine years together, he was a staple at the farm with me in the afternoons and early evenings, running and fetching the ball in between practices and games, as he put on a show of incredible agility, speed, and athleticism.
“He was always a resilient little man, and even though he lost his sight to retinal atrophy and cataracts, he still had his personality shining through and he was able to maintain a quality of life until recently. We didn’t get to spend much time together out at the farm after 2021.
“I just wanted to share this story with all of you because he not only touched my life, but there are Wheeler faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents, and bus drivers that remember him fondly and have stories of the little dog that would run for hours and smile all the time!”
Thank you, Coach Stein, for making us all smile with these warm memories of Knox.
Jun 24
