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The Science and Art of Brimmer
Lower School
Books, Brushes, Bugs, Beats, and Brazil— All in a Day’s Discovery
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rom the moment our Lower Schoolers run across the playground to greet their teachers, each day at Brimmer and May School is purpose-built to channel our students’ natural sense of wonder into joyful, meaningful inquiry. Our immersive, experiential curriculum equips our students with skills that transcend any single subject or discipline: how to ask a question, follow an idea to its conclusion, make a compelling argument, and express themselves with clarity. We are empowering our youngest learners to thrive in the face of complexity and challenge. You’ll find a close-knit community that ensures every child is seen, heard, and valued as an individual with boundless potential and promise. Our faculty and staff genuinely love what they do and who they teach. As soon as you step onto our campus, you feel it: the spark, the warmth, the joyful voices, the laughter, the curiosity that fuels deep learning, and an immediate sense of belonging.
That’s the Science and Art of Brimmer.
Experience Brimmer Through Our Lens Our Instagram captures dynamic moments on campus—and beyond! Get to know us, one post at a time!
You might find us… digging ← in the Lower School Garden to discover how our environment works and our place in it… diving into the daily rhythms of a culture thousands of miles away to explore the different ways humans live, work, and play around the world… using 3-D fabrication tools to turn an idea into something we can hold in our hands, or even… taking ↑ center stage in a rock and roll musical about Ancient Greece. In the midst of doing, making, and experiencing, we are always learning. brimmer.org 1
Lower School
Character Is Core to Our Curriculum
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trong character and strong academic achievement are deeply connected, but the values that help our students thrive together in the classroom will also shape how they move through the world. Brimmer’s five Core Values are Respect, Responsibility, Kindness, Honesty, and Equity. They form the moral and emotional foundation of our school community, guiding how our students, faculty, and staff treat one another and giving us all meaningful shared language to understand and navigate their lives with confidence and compassion.
In a world where algorithms take on increasing amounts of composition, calculation, and analysis, our students will develop the judgment to navigate what is unclear. They will show compassion for others and have the integrity to do what is right when no one is watching. These are the qualities that will set them apart wherever their future takes them into careers that don’t yet exist.
To learn more about how the Core Values shape our campus culture, scan here.
Whether it is showing respect during a classroom discussion, demonstrating responsibility during transitions, or practicing kindness with a new classmate, our values come alive through daily habits. Our weekly awards, given at Share Assemblies, provide an opportunity for us to highlight students who exemplify these values, celebrate their efforts, and remind our whole community of the joy that comes from living our values.”
The Core Values are like a checklist for how to be our best selves with our friends and our teachers. They remind us that it matters how we treat each other.”
Assistant Head of School
Grade 5 Student
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Lower School
Big Ideas Grow Where Imagination
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earning at Brimmer starts with a question. Our students use exploration, experimentation, and creativity to develop their own understanding, blending science, art, and realworld problem-solving. We give them room to take age-appropriate intellectual risks, so they can build confidence alongside core academic skills. Inspiration sparks the journey, and imagination drives it forward.
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size of an average class in the Lower School, facilitating both individual attention and close collaboration
Meets Inquiry
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Lower School academics
I think the teachers here get really excited and happy when we learn things and understand them. It feels like they’re proud of us and what we accomplish when we try hard.” Grade 4 student
Learning That Links
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ach grade in the Lower School is organized around an Essential Question that links our lessons in science, math, literacy, and history. In pursuing the answer to the Essential Question, our students discover how to forge connections, build arguments, and present their findings to their fellow learners. Our faculty build strong teacherstudent and teacher-family bonds that foster confidence and comfort in even our youngest learners. Our small
class sizes and a relationship-centered approach ensure each student receives personalized instruction. We aim to provide ageappropriate rigor and challenge, while always maintaining the joy of learning. For students who need additional guidance and support, our educators and specialists collaborate with families to create responsive plans that help students stay on track toward their goals.
4 interdisciplinary academic blocks each day
Portfolios Throughout the Lower School, our students build a portfolio that travels with them from grade to grade. They choose work from multiple disciplines to show their growth and reflect on what they’ve learned along the way. Each year, portfolios are shared with the community at Portfolio Exhibitions. For our teachers, portfolios are another powerful tool for understanding how each student develops, both across the school year and over their time in the Lower School.
Exhibitions of Knowledge Exhibitions are a hallmark of a Brimmer education. Each year, our students research, prepare, and present their work across disciplines, both independently and in groups. These presentations give our teachers an invaluable window into each student’s growth as a learner: we discover what they know and how deeply they know it. Our current families are invited to come enjoy public speaking in action.
the World Together Even from the very youngest ages, we want our students to believe that they can think big and accomplish big things when they put their hearts and minds into learning and exploring. Whatever they can imagine, we can help them create.” Pre-Kindergarten Teacher
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Lower School STEAM
Curiosity-Powered Learning That Makes the World Make Sense
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TEAM at Brimmer is hands-on, project-based, and built to grow with our students from their first coding steps in Pre-K to engineering challenges in Grade 5.
Math Our Math program moves from concrete to the abstract across grades, always ensuring our students can articulate their thinking as they solve problems. In the early grades, students explore counting, sorting, and patterning through stories and play, building toward number sense, graphing, and geometry. In Grades 3 and 4, students develop fluency with multiplication, fractions, decimals, and multi-digit operations, arriving in Grade 5 ready for algebraic reasoning.
Science In Science, our youngest learners explore habitats, ecosystems, and life cycles, including a continent-bycontinent journey in Kindergarten. In the middle grades, inquiry deepens into soil, the human body, light, insects, and plants. In Grades 4 and 5, our students investigate geology, electricity, and astronomy, connecting their discoveries to real-world systems.
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Technology for Learning We use technology to enhance our curriculum. Students from Pre-K to Grade 5 access state-of-the-art resources to research, write, design, code, and create multimedia projects that span disciplines and get shared with the broader community.
Design Lab The Design Lab is a hands-on learning space where Lower School students think like designers. Built around an Essential Question and inquiry-based exploration, our students collaborate, experiment, and problem-solve their way to answers, taking ownership of their learning and building the creative, flexible mindset great leaders need.
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Technology and Coding Our students start coding in Pre-K with KIBO robots and build steadily from there, through dedicated coding units and cross-disciplinary projects. By fifth grade, our students make fluent use of state-of-the-art digital tools alongside hands-on making.
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2–3 ColLab
Engineering and Design Students in Grades 2 and 3 tackle focused, two-week, hands-on experiences in their Engineering ColLab that help them develop an understanding of engineering. Our challenges include: • Bridge Building • Hot Air Balloons • Bouncy Balls • Dog Biscuit Carriers
Whether through coding or design challenges, STEAM is deeply embedded into the curriculum. Students come to these experiences with a strong foundation of knowledge, allowing them to engage thoughtfully and confidently with each new lesson.” Lower School Director of Teaching and Learning
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Lower School Humanities
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umanities in the Lower School are taught as a deeply integrated, globally minded discipline rather than a set of isolated subjects. Social studies, language arts, and world languages are woven together through a thematic, interdisciplinary
curriculum designed to help students make meaningful connections. From the earliest grades, students are encouraged to explore their place in the world, developing empathy, cultural awareness, and a sense of responsibility as global citizens.
Discovering the World Social Studies Our students explore the world through a lens of interconnectedness, from a Kindergarten inquiry into the seven continents to African culture in Grade 3 and the Silk Road in Grade 4. Each grade also incorporates the UN Sustainable Development Goals into its curriculum, putting learning into action through service projects, awareness campaigns, and fundraising for global causes.
and Our Place in It
Language Arts Faculty from all disciplines help students develop a love of books and reading while introducing foundational literacy skills, with thematic studies integrating reading and writing across science and STEAM topics. Teacher-guided lessons are balanced with hands-on, multisensory activities and exploratory play, with small class sizes allowing for a personalized mix of individual, small group, and whole group instruction.
World Languages French begins in Pre-K and continues through fifth grade. Fifth graders rotate through French, Mandarin, and Spanish. Language is also woven into the broader curriculum: first graders enjoy a French breakfast together, and third graders perform a French play.
Cultural Awareness Building The Lower School Diversity Committee ensures our students engage with world cultures at every grade by creating opportunities for students to learn from one another about their own cultures and to share what they have learned about different cultures. These opportunities include Diversity Lunch Bunch and affinity groups for Grades 4 and 5. The program includes “Our Community” in Pre-K, a “World Tour” in Kindergarten, and a Grade 5 study of Native Americans during the early colonial period.
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Lower School Experiential learning
Learning Can Happen Anywhere
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e continue the journey of discovery all over our campus and beyond through rich experiential learning opportunities. Our integrated, hands-on approach makes the whole world our laboratory and our canvas.
and Here It Happens Everywhere
Recent trips have included • Harvard Museum of Natural History • The Arnold Arboretum • Museum of Science • Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate • Rose’s Bounty • Belkin Family Lookout Farm • Houghton Garden
Field Trips Greater Boston offers many opportunities for our students to deepen their understanding of science, history, art, culture, and many other topics. Throughout the school year, our students visit outdoor parks, gardens, and other places where classroom learning is translated into the real world. The Lower School Library Lower School students visit the library weekly to sharpen their information and digital literacy skills, learn to research effectively, and deepen their love of reading. From evaluating sources to applying research skills directly to classroom projects in language arts, science, and social studies, the library equips our students with the critical thinking tools they’ll carry through to Middle School and beyond.
The Lower School Garden The Lower School Garden is a living classroom. Our students study ecology, explore where food comes from, and learn to care for the environment through hands-on work like planting, harvesting, tending the soil, and composting. What they grow even makes its way to the lunch table, connecting learning to life in a delicious way.
Community Service Learning Community service is woven into the fabric of Brimmer’s Lower School. Students at every grade level engage in service learning tied directly to our curriculum, building empathy, social skills, and real relationships along the way.
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Lower School Social-Emotional Learning
Putting Our Core Values Into Action
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ur social-emotional learning (SEL) program is grounded in our Core Values—Respect, Responsibility, Kindness, Equity, and Honesty—and aims to foster a sense of belonging where every student feels safe, supported, and valued. We align the Core Values with the CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) framework to cultivate five core competencies: self-awareness,
self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. From Pre-K through Grade 5, students build these skills progressively. They learn to name emotions, develop independence, find their voice, and problem-solve with empathy. SEL is fundamental to every aspect of the Lower School experience, and it sets our students up to succeed in our Middle and Upper divisions.
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The faculty does an amazing job of equipping each child to respond to the world around them in positive, kind ways through SEL. This is a community where everyone feels seen and heard and known.”
Our SEL competencies are unique as they specifically reflect our Core Values in action. We give our students expectations of what those actions look and sound like throughout their day and lives. Our students speak up and advocate for themselves and one another.”
Lower School parent
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Lower School Social-Emotional Learning
When I was very little, my buddy made me feel like I already had a friend, even though I’d just started coming to school. I was always excited to see them.” Grade 2 student
Built-In Belonging
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he Lower School Buddy Program pairs older students in the Lower School with younger students to foster friendship and a deep sense of belonging. Whether they are sitting together in Share Assemblies, enjoying special events like the apple-picking trip in the early fall, participating in the annual buddy walk, or greeting each other with a high five in the hallway, the friendships between buddies bring our close-knit, crossgrade community to life.
My buddy was so excited to go apple picking that I had to run to keep up with her and make sure she was safe! She’s my responsibility. I loved being able to help her grab an apple because my arms are much longer.” Grade 5 student
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Lower School Creative Arts
Building Identity
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very grade in the Lower School engages in comprehensive, required education in the visual arts, music, and drama, and the creative arts are threaded through every subject and discipline. Our students have the opportunity to explore new forms of expression, to take risks in a safe, encouraging environment, and to discover and
pursue what they are most curious about and most drawn to. This empowers our students to infuse creativity and joy into every aspect of their academic journey and to express themselves thoughtfully and confidently from the classroom to the Art Barn to the Makerspace to the stage of the Ruth Corkin Theatre… and beyond.
Visual Arts Our students begin with the basics of color, line, shape, and texture, using paint, clay, collage, and printmaking. As they grow, they choose their own materials, develop their own creative voice, and learn to talk honestly about their work. In the upper grades, they take part in informal critiques and eventually plan their own piece for the Grade 5 Capstone Exhibition of Knowledge.
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dedicated Creative Arts facilities for the Lower School program, including the Art Barn, the Corkin Theatre, and the Lower School Music Studio
Our Creative Arts program offers an exciting, evolving curriculum that fosters creativity and self-expression at every age and that brings joy to the whole community.” Lower School Creative Arts Coordinator and Visual Arts teacher
Through Self-Expression
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Lower School Creative Arts
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Music Our students begin by finding their voices, learning to keep a steady beat, and exploring melody, dynamics, rhythm, and notation. In Grade 2, they pick up the soprano recorder, and by Grade 3, can join Beginning Band, choosing from piano, brass, woodwinds, or percussion. The journey culminates in Grade 5 with composition, improvisation, and a full musical performance. Students also participate each week in the Second and Third Grade Chorus or Fourth and Fifth Grade Chorus.
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Drama Our students start with storytelling, imaginative play, and the basics of being a good audience member. From there, they build skills in character development, ensemble work, and improvisation. Our Grade 3 students write, translate, and perform an original French play for a live audience. By Grade 5, they are auditioning, rehearsing, keeping a character journal, and performing on opening night.
I like that every year, we get to do performances that everyone can watch. In Grade 3, our play is performed in French. It’s like we put two subjects together and get better at both!” Grade 3 student
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Lower School Physical Education + Sports
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rimmer’s Physical Education program provides a safe, supportive environment where students develop movement skills, learn the importance of rules, safety, and sportsmanship, and build habits for a healthy, active life. When students reach Grade 3, the program focuses on helping them further develop their skills in soccer, track and field, floor hockey, volleyball, badminton, handball, basketball, lacrosse, tennis, and softball. The program follows SHAPE America’s four standards for physical literacy, which together focus on motor skill competency, movement knowledge, fitness, responsible social behavior, and recognizing the value of physical activity for health and enjoyment.
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Lower School Physical Education + Sports
Recreation & Wellness Center Our 26,000-square-foot Recreation & Wellness Center provides a dynamic and dedicated home for all of our athletics, recreation, and wellness programs across all divisions. For the Lower School, this means PE and sports in the large gymnasium, play and movement in the Junior Gym, and enjoying games and fun in our Extended Day Program.
After School Sports (Grades 4 and 5) As a unique extension of our Lower School PE program, our fourth and fifth graders are able to extend their athletic experience through optional seasonal after school sports programs that introduce them to interscholastic athletics. • Fall: soccer • Winter: basketball • Spring: baseball/softball and ultimate frisbee These programs give students hands-on experience with team practices, game strategies, and tactics, working with a coach, officiating, and sportsmanship: skills that will prepare them to be a valued member of a team as they ready themselves for Middle School and beyond.
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Lower School after school activities
Beyond the Classroom
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t Brimmer, after school activities are an extension of everything that makes the school special. Whether our students are picking up an instrument for the first time, discovering a passion for coding, or finding their voice on stage, the after school experience gives our students more opportunities to follow their curiosity, build confidence, and deepen friendships. There’s always something new to try, and new friends to cheer you on.
After school clubs and activities to join
and Still Very Brimmer
The Extended Day Program is designed to be a continuation of everything that happens in the school day: more discovery, more opportunities to learn by doing, more time with friends.” Extended Day Teacher
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Lower School Extracurriculars
Discovering More Fun
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rimmer offers a rich after school experience through our Extended Day Program and an array of after school clubs and lessons that enable our students to pursue their interests more deeply in a safe, encouraging environment.
Extended Day Program Brimmer’s Extended Day Program is designed to be a true extension of our dynamic and discovery-rich school day. The Extended Day Program is open to all students in Pre-K through Grade 5 and runs from dismissal until 5:30 p.m. from the first day of school to the last, giving families a reliable, consistent option throughout the
year. Our Upper School students and alumni are often involved in the Extended Day, too—which our Lower School students love! The program also connects seamlessly with Brimmer’s After School Clubs, which have included everything from chess and cooking to karate, yoga, Minecraft coding, and community service.
When the School Day Is Done
After School Clubs After school clubs are open to all Lower School students and are designed to give our students a chance to explore new interests and build friendships beyond the classroom. Students are excited to build new skills in cooking, karate, chess, yoga, dance, and more.
After School Music Program The After School Music Program offers private instrumental and voice lessons for students, with instruction tailored to each student’s age, interests, and goals. Lessons are also designed to support students participating in band ensembles, and at the end of the year, all musicians are invited to perform at an oncampus recital. brimmer.org 28|29
Lower School apply and visit
We Can’t Wait to Meet You!
The best way to discover Brimmer is to come meet us and experience what life looks, sounds, and feels like on campus.
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can to learn more about our admissions process, schedule a campus tour, and begin your application.
If you have any questions or need any additional support to get started, we welcome you to contact our admissions team at admissions@brimmer.org.
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Lower School
Curiosity, Creativity, and Community Live at Brimmer
Lower School
Brimmer At-a-Glance • 400 Total enrollment • 140 Total Lower School enrollment • 12 Average class size • 6:1 Student-faculty ratio • 125 Total faculty/staff • 11 Years average faculty “tenure” • 80% Faculty with advanced degrees • 40% Students of color/international
69 Middlesex Road Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 617-566-7462