Pre-K4 Curriculum

Students continue to explore the concepts taught in Pre-K3 including stability, weight, balance, width, height, length, and shape while working in the Blocks and Manipulatives Center.  Students expand their knowledge of numbers, working on numbers 0-100. Other units of focus include patterns, sequencing, graphing, measurement, money, and time. With a growing number sense, students begin to practice adding objects together and discuss associated mathematical language.

In the Science and Discovery Center, the students explore a variety of scientific tools including balance scales, magnifying glasses, microscopes, and measuring tools. They learn about living things as they engage in planting and study the life cycles of butterflies.  They learn about basic scientific principles such as sinking and floating. The Pre-K4 classroom has a sensory table where the students can learn practical math skills when they pour sand and water from one container to another. Materials are changed to support the classroom themes. They learn about number, color and size when they play with objects in the center.

Pre-K4 Students partake in several co-curricular activities such as music, dance, and world language. Please see our Beyond Core Academics page.

For two weeks in May, the Pre-K4 classes transform their classroom into the All Saints Post Office.

To initiate this project, Pre-K4 students study the various roles of postal workers in the community and visit the Hoboken Post Office on Washington Street. After learning about how a real post office works, students work to convert the dramatic play center into a working post office. They build a mailbox for receiving mail to put in an area accessible to the school community and another mailbox to be kept in the classroom. The students also make mailbags out of paper bags to transport the mail on their routes throughout the building.

To inform the community about their school-wide service operation, students make and hang signs around the school building to let customers know of times when the post office is open. Students also design their own stamps, which sell for $.10 each. When the post office is open, the Pre-K4 students are able to utilize the various skills they have learned throughout the year to sort and label the mail and prepare it for distribution.

Over this two-week period, all of the students assume various responsibilities in the center. They serve their customers by selling stamps, sorting mail, and delivering mail. During business hours, the Pre-K4 classroom is a very busy place! To add even more meaning and purpose to the project, profits from the sale of stamps are donated to a charity of the students’ choice. The class discusses different charities that could benefit from the money and then votes to choose a charity. Subsequently, they visit the charity and present the money to a worker there.

This comprehensive milestone project is an important learning experience for the students in Pre-K4. It allows them to engage in a deeper and more meaningful study of their unit on Community Helpers. This project also leads to the development of important math skills, including work with money (when selling stamps) and sorting (when receiving and distributing mail). The students also learn pre-reading and writing skills when reading envelopes and making posters. Finally, this project allows the students in the Pre-K4 classes to develop a sense of responsibility and teaches them the importance of working cooperatively with peers to get the job done.