Lower School / Nest Preschool-5
Exploration, discovery, and play define our early learning experiences.
Spend some time with our students, faculty, and staff, and see what makes our school so special, at an upcoming Open House! Open House for K-12 is Oct. 17 from 9am-12pm and Open House for N-PreK is Nov. 14 from 9:30-11:30am. Register here. We can’t wait to welcome you to Wheeler!
At Wheeler, we build curiosity, confidence, and critical skills—and instill in each student a lifelong love of learning. We welcome students and families from every background to join our inclusive, diverse, energetic community.
Exploration, discovery, and play define our early learning experiences.
The right balance of support and challenge brings out every student's best
Challenging and engaging coursework tailored to your interests equip students to become critical thinkers and thoughtful global citizens
A school-within-a-school, skilled faculty meet students’ learning differences with the individualized instruction that leads to success
We help each student learn by doing and collaborating, explore new interests and grow their passions, build self-awareness and confidence through leadership and service, and develop to be thoughtful, curious, and contributing citizens of the world.
Read about Wheeler
The hub of our dynamic N-12 community, Wheeler's campus at the top of College Hill in Providence, offers student-focused learning spaces designed to encourage discovery, collaboration, play, and achievement.
In the City
Our 120-acre farm in nearby Seekonk, MA provides students with state-of-the-art athletic facilities. It's a pastoral counterpoint to our urban campus—and is a living, hands-on laboratory for a range of unique programs.
On the Farm
The Class of 2027 came together for their senior retreat at Wheeler Farm last night. 💛💜 Here are some lovely moments with our seniors as they celebrate each other. We’ll share some fun video moments in a future post! #classof2027🎓
Sep 18
It’s a beautiful day for our 9th-, 10th-, and 11th-Grade Retreats!
Sophomores started things off by looking a few years ahead, writing letters to their future selves that they’ll open during Commencement Week of their senior years. This is one group of 10th-graders who gathered outside of Stimson House for their writing session.
We’re excited to see where the retreat, and the next three years at Wheeler, takes them!
Sep 18
“How is an ice cube like a crayon?” Let’s spend a little time with a group of 2nd-graders who are exploring that question with Hamilton Science Teacher Katie Belida P’41.
“Before trying to ask young students to understand solids and gases, it’s important for them to understand material properties and how they can change,” Ms. Belida says. “First I wanted to get them separating material from property and connecting property to function and use. We used plastic because it’s waterproof, but it’s also light, and the best way to help them internalize that, make space for the language, and make it sticky in their brains, particularly for dyslexic learners, is to give them experiences with it.”
Ms. Belida likes to start with open-ended lessons such as this one, where students can explore questions like, “How does clay change when you heat it up?” and consider whether the effects of heating and cooling are reversible or irreversible. “We spend time describing what they’re seeing,” she says.
“This is like the foundation of chemistry in 2nd-grade,” Ms. Belida adds. “Today the students got to experiment with some cool materials with different properties to unlock some of that knowledge. So when they are looking at the ice on the screen, and I’m asking them how it’s changing and whether we can undo that process, they just had that physical experience and can answer that question.”
So, how is an ice cube like a crayon? Ms. Belida explains, “Both are meltable and both went from a solid to a liquid in the presence of heat. And unlike clay, which gets harder and cannot be reversed, you can reverse that change so you can harden that melted crayon and you can still write, and you can still refreeze that ice and it will still be of use to you. Thinking about these things [and discovering the answers] are already in our students’ brains, they just haven’t named it.”
Sep 17
What happens when a 1943 photograph meets a return visit to Wheeler more than 80 years later? 📸 In 1943, Miriam Graves Kenney ’53 was photographed arriving at Hope Building as a seven-year-old. This spring, she returned to our Providence campus and walked those same steps again with her sisters, Nancy Graves Wilson ’62 and Carol Graves Cimilluca ’59.
The result? A pretty special recreation of a moment from Wheeler’s past with Mary C. Wheeler Historian and Archivist Bob Martin P’05, P’10. You can read the full story at the link in bio! 💜💛
Sep 16