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’re almost at the end of a great week here at Wheeler, and we’re wrapping it up with a beautiful shot of last night’s double rainbow over the Hope Building, captured by senior Sky L. ’27. 🌈
“I was walking out of the gym from Volleyball practice, ready to go home,” says Sky, “when I heard people really excited about something, so I went to look and saw how beautiful the sky looked with the double rainbow. I had to capture it because it felt like a rare moment we were lucky to see. It made me feel happy and appreciative, and I felt like it was a special moment for our team.” 🌅
And now, we’re heading into the weekend with Friday Night Lights! Good luck to our Varsity Field Hockey and Varsity Girls Soccer @WheelerWarriors as they take the field tonight at Wheeler Farm. Both games start at 4:30pm. 🏑⚽
Oct 2
Nursery Teachers Ashley Kenner P’28, P’33 and Matt Silveira noticed early on that the children in this year’s Mockingbird class have a keen eye for spotting creatures 👀 in the forest. On nearly every trail adventure, Mockingbirds can be found turning over logs 🪵, digging in damp soil, or searching high and low in hopes of finding living things.
From finding salamanders 🦎 at Fire Pond to watching turtles 🐢 sunbathe at Wheeler Pond, Mockingbirds captured the many moments and conversations sparked on the trail and began creating a catalog-style classroom book titled “Mockingbird Forest Book.”
Each student designed their own page and recalled their observations through a co-writing process with Ms. Kenner and Mr. Silveira. For example, Ethan described a moment when he found a worm: “I am holding a worm. I am not being rough. I am being gentle. I found it under a rock. I moved it and it was heavy.”
Other Mockingbirds were eager to contribute what they already knew about their animals, like Livy, who recalled, “Sometimes frogs are green or gray. Some toads look like frogs.”
After completing their first set of pages in their forest book, Mockingbirds and their teachers shared a few excerpts from their creation at the Nest’s first community meeting of the year. They also led four other classrooms in an animal guessing game, putting their growing knowledge of the farm’s forest to the test! 🌳🌲
Oct 2
The Hamilton Institute presents its fifth annual Learning Differences Seminar with Dr. Gregory Fabiano, who will deliver the keynote address, “New Directions in Intervention and Treatment for Children with ADHD,” on October 15.
Dr. Fabiano will share newly studied, research-supported approaches for supporting children with ADHD, followed by a Q&A and conversation about how to put these approaches into practice.
He’ll also discuss the latest innovations in treatment, including positive behavior supports in the classroom, effective parenting strategies, and a broader shift from a symptom-based, deficit model toward approaches that promote academic and social-emotional skill development. Attendees will leave with practical tools and strategies to help every child build the skills they need to thrive.
Educators, parents, caregivers, clinicians, and individuals with ADHD are encouraged to attend!
You can learn more about the seminar and RSVP through the link in our bio. And if you’d like to hear from Dr. Fabiano before then, he was recently the featured guest on the inaugural episode of the all-new “Unlocking Unique Minds” Podcast (listen via https://bit.ly/4hXCAJH).
As Dyslexia Awareness Month begins, we’re looking forward to sharing more upcoming events and program activities from the Hamilton Institute. ♥️
Oct 2
In a special moment on the soccer pitch today at Wheeler Farm, Head of School Mark Anderson P’27 watched his oldest child, Stella, coach her Friends Academy Middle School squad to a 1-1 tie against the Warriors.
“Stella is a teaching fellow at Friends Academy, teaching Middle School English and coaching soccer,” Mr. Anderson shared along with this dad and daughter selfie.
“After many years of watching Stella play sports, I was proud to see her on the sideline coaching her students/players and passing along her love of the game.” @friends1810
Oct 1
