2nd - 5th Grades
Lower School
During this formative period in a child’s development, the Lower School is committed to supporting the growth of the whole child. Whittle students will be scholars, intrepid explorers, creative builders and self-aware individuals.
Their innate curiosity will be nurtured and their willingness to persevere encouraged. Students will develop a love for reading, math and its many applications, researching the things they are passionate about, and more.
Our students will see diversity as a strength, and will be proof that diversity of background, languages, races, experiences, and perspectives makes us smarter. Students will learn about the problems we face worldwide and develop dispositions and skills to address them. They will learn how to communicate effectively in order to build understanding and collaboration. Facility with at least one other language and culture is central.
Essential Practices
CHILDREN FOLLOW PERSONALIZED LEARNING PATHWAYS
Personalized learning enables teachers to meet students’ needs based on their readiness, interests, and learning profile. It also allows students to be agents of their own development, working with teachers to co-create assessments and rubrics, reflect on their own learning, and decide upon next steps.
CHILDREN LEARN BEST THROUGH MEANINGFUL, INTERDISCIPLINARY, PROJECT-BASED EXPERIENCES
Students should be at the center of their own learning experience, developing deep content knowledge through the investigation of problems within their lived experiences. At Whittle School & Studios, these interdisciplinary projects will be centered around the United Nations’ Sustainable Goals and will provide opportunities for students to engage and present to members of their local community as well as their peers on other campuses. Students will not only learn by doing, but also by reflecting upon their learning.
THE TEACHER STUDENT DYNAMIC
All of our teachers are students, and all of our students are teachers. They are always learning from one another and as a class together. Our classrooms are created to encourage an ongoing exchange of ideas through learning, projects, and experiences. Inside the classroom, our students will present completed projects with documentation, Creative Art & Design (CAD) work and more. Outside the classroom, our teachers will continue their professional development to be lifelong learners.
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING IS AT THE CORE OF OUR PROGRAM
Social and emotional competencies are increasingly recognized as critical for children’s success in school. An evolved child will find greater ease in later phases of life and adulthood. As children move through the elementary years, aptitude in social and emotional abilities are critical to each child’s overall well-being and success.
THE DISPOSITION TO BE YOUR BEST SELF
The innate curiosity of our students will be encouraged into avid dispositions to make the most of their skills and abilities. Our students will learn literacy hand in hand with the joy of reading for pleasure and discovery. They will learn how to solve math problems but will also see math as a tool or a language to solve other challenges.
A Typical Day
This schedule reflects a typical day in a typical year.
Our aim is to open 5-days a week this fall. Due to COVID-19 the schedule is subject to change. This summary gives a relevant outline of our goals for each student every day.
Before 8:00AM
Social/Planning time
8:15 - 8:45AM
Community
8:45-9:45AM
Maths Workshop
9:45-10:15AM
Movement and Physical Literacy
10:15-11:00AM
Integrated Project Work
11:00-11:45PM
Arts and Making
11:45-12:30 PM
Outdoor Play
12:30-1:00PM
Lunch
1:00-2:00PM
Literacy Workshop
2:00 - 2:45PM
World Language and Culture
2:45-3:15PM
Community and Reflection
3:15-6:00PM
Studios (Optional)
X-Day
Many of our most meaningful learning experiences don’t fit into a typical school schedule. We have set aside a full day each week to make space for these opportunities. Sometimes we use X-Days to take our learning outside of the building to support our interdisciplinary project work. This year Lower School students:
Visited a pet store and a veterinary clinic
Volunteered at an equine therapy barn
Designed and built prototypes for a Whittle chicken coop at KIDMuseum
Took a tour of a Montgomery County Recycling Plant
Spent many hours enjoying the trails in Rock Creek Park
Participated in overnight trips to Hard Bargain Farm
Delivered care boxes to SOME
We also use our X-Days to support students’ passions. Design-your-own-X-Day trips included visits to the National Gallery, the National Academy of Sciences, Williams-Sonoma, the Japanese Cultural Center, murals in the Shaw neighborhood, and the Museum of American History.
X-Days also allow for deeper learning within the building. We have spent X-Days building our cultural competence through the celebration of the mid-Autumn and the Lunar New Year holidays. We devoted an entire day to physical literacy, participating in soccer clinics, yoga sessions, smoothie-making, and cooperative games. We have used them to build our school community, spending time with ‘housemates’ across the divisions. And sometimes they provide a chance to lavish unhurried time on a particular academic area – a whole morning devoted to writing, revising, and peer feedback, or an afternoon-long science experiment.
Over the course of four engagements, students took a careful look at the work of the Challenger Center and engaged with their STEM learning opportunities. In collaborating with the Challenger Center team to develop a new Classroom Adventure, students created a scientific storyline that supports the Next Generation Science Standards and assists with the development of a digital simulation that will be shared with thousands of students across the globe.
Students with a particular interest in the arts were taken on a personalized X-Day to the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum. Students took a "walk and draw" tour with Exhibit Designer, Eunice Park Kim, and a graphic arts collection tour with Collections Manager, Denise Wamaling.
Learing In AcTion
Lower School Articles from our Blog
News & Blog
Lower School Division Head
Susanna Stossel
Susanna Stossel is a firm believer in the Whittle School & Studios mission. A founding faculty member and critical part of the launch team, she brings deep expertise, warmth, and dedication to making the Whittle vision a reality. In building the school, she has enacted a program that hews to research in what children need from their school but also what the world increasingly needs from Whittle graduates: those who can work together to collaboratively solve complicated interdisciplinary problems.
Susanna joins Whittle School & Studios with 25 years of experience in education. Most recently she came from Beauvoir, the National Cathedral Elementary School in Washington, D.C., where she taught both math and science before taking on her most recent role as Director of Early Childhood Teaching and Learning. She received both her B.A. in Child Study and M.A. in teaching from Tufts University. Prior to joining Beauvoir, Susanna taught at Belmont Day School and Arthur D. Healy School in Massachusetts and has led professional development for educators in math curriculum and pedagogy. She also co-wrote Baby’s Wild Adventure, a math unit guide and accompanying picture book for kindergarten geometry that was published in 2015.
“Through their studies in the Early Learning Center and Lower School, students will make connections among the disciplines and apply the skills and understandings to investigations in their lived experiences. With our campus in Shenzhen, students have the opportunity to share their learning and engage in projects across the globe. Our students will learn that with knowledge comes responsibility, and a part of every project will be a forward-looking, outwardfacing question: How can we use what we learn to make the world a better place?”
