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
This first day of Wheeler’s Homecoming Weekend has been filled with Purple and Gold spirit – most notably at this afternoon’s Pep Rally! Students, faculty, and staff cheered on our fall Warriors Athletics teams, and played a series of not-so-serious games, in Madden Gym on our Providence campus, before we headed over to the farm for Friday Night Lights’ Pink Out, as Varsity Girls Soccer took the pitch against Beaver Country Day, and Varsity Boys Soccer matched up against Marianapolis Prep.
We’ll be back at the farm on Saturday for the second day of Homecoming, featuring the Middle School Soccer Tournament and the Fun Run in the morning, followed by Fall Fest activities, Community Pickleball, and Varsity Girls Field Hockey in the afternoon. The weekend comes to a close “Under the Sea” tomorrow evening at the Upper School’s Homecoming Dance, and while students are dancing the night away, their parents will be enjoying time together at the Upper School Parent and Guardian Social. 💜💛
Oct 24
It is great to have Wheeler alumni from across the years back on campus today for Homecoming Weekend! 💜💛
After the morning’s career roundtables, the day continued with a lunch with Head of School Mark J. Anderson P’27, a campus tour, a pop-up performance by the @18Wheelers, a closer look at the life and art of Mary C. Wheeler, and an Alumni of Color Meet Up hosted by our Office of Equity, Community & Belonging.
It was a chance for our alumni to reconnect with familiar faces, revisit favorite places, and spend time together here at Wheeler. 💜
Oct 23
This morning, Wheeler alumni returned to school to share their professional perspectives with our juniors and seniors. The Alumni Career Roundtables, which paired alums with members of the Class of 2027 and 2028, helped kick off Homecoming Weekend. 💜💛
From marketing, public relations, art, law, and real estate to politics, entertainment and music, higher education and nonprofit, investment management, entrepreneurship, medicine, and journalism, students learned about a variety of career paths and heard firsthand what life after Wheeler can look like.
We are grateful to our alumni for returning to our Providence campus, sharing a bit of their journeys, and helping our juniors and seniors imagine the possibilities ahead. 🎓✨
Oct 23
Who’s ready for Friday Night Lights? 🎊Lower and Middle School students got creative with purple-and-gold shakers, posters, and signs to cheer on our @WheelerWarriors.
Come out to the Farm this afternoon to cheer on our teams! Girls Varsity Soccer plays at 4:30pm, followed by Boys Varsity Soccer at 6:30pm. ⚽
A big thank-you to the Wheeler Family Association for helping get students ready for Homecoming Weekend!
Go, Warriors! 💜⚡💛⚡ #WheelerSpirit #WheelerHomecoming #GoWarriors #WheelerWarriors
Oct 23
