Overview
Four-year-olds are becoming more independent than three-year-olds and enjoy socializing with their peers. Four-year-olds are interested in imitating the behavior of familiar adults, while still enjoy playing in groups of two or three children. Four-year-olds are beginning to make friends more easily and as a result sharing also becomes easier.
Four-year-olds are more expressive and love to talk, be spoken to and listen to stories. Their language has become more fluent and four-year-olds frequently ask “why.” They are interested in the world around them, often seeking to understand the why things are happening, exploring the relationship between cause and effect. Four-year-olds use their imaginations to understand the world, thus making it difficult at times to accept the difference between truth and fiction. Our teachers are ready to challenge our busy four-year-olds as they happily explore the world around them. At All Saints, our Pre-Kindergarteners are learning to work together in preparation for the opening of their Valentine post office each February.
Learning Themes
- Look at Me, I’m Growing
- Fire Prevention
- The People who make our Community run
- Changing Season
- Winter and Hibernation
- Valentine Post Office
- Spring
- Transportation
- Insects and Spiders
- Dinosaurs
- Getting ready for Kindergarten
Library Center
- Letters of the Month
- Author of the Month (Laura Numeroff, Jonathan London, Ian Falconer, Jan Brett, Marc Brown, Mo Williams, Mercer Meyer, Cynthia Ryland, Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, David Shannon and Todd Parr)
- Themed book baskets each month
- Books on tape
- Writing Journals
- Magnetic letters
- Transformation into Pre-K library, after trip to Hoboken Public Library
Blocks/Mathematics Center
Curriculum Units:
- Counting to 20
- Symmetry/opposites
- Sorting/classifying
- Patterns
- Measuring
- Money values
- Graphing
- Telling time/sequencing
- Number values
Activities/Materials:
- Pattern boards
- Sorting Trays
- Measuring tools
- Attribute blocks
- Manipulatives
- Cardboard blocks
- Lincoln logs
- Legos
- Community signs
- Vehicles
Science/Discovery Center
- Globe
- Healthy Snacks
- Pumpkins and gourds
- Leaf observation
- Corn study
- Five senses
- Making snow
- Magnets
- Butterflies
- Ladybug lifecycle
- Changing weather
- Plants and flowers
- Ocean animals
- Magnifying glasses
- Animal figures
- Sensory table (rice, water, measuring tools, webbing, leaves, shaving cream, snow, and play dough)
- Dinosaur fossils
Dramatic Play Center
- Kitchen
- Dress-up clothes
- Puppet show
- Pre-K Animal Hospital
- Valentine Post Office
Milestone Project – Valentine’s Post Office
For the first two weeks of February, the Pre-K classes transform their classroom into the Valentine Post Office.
To initiate this project, Pre-K 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 the 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 $.05 each. When the post office is open, the Pre-K 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-K 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-K. 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-K classes to develop a sense of responsibility and teaches them the importance of working cooperatively with peers to get the job done.
Field Trips
- Neighborhood Walks
- Grocery Store
- Post Office
- Hoboken Public Library
- Literature play at Montclair State University
- Hoboken Animal Hospital
- Tree Walk
Curriculum/Early Childhood Program: Next Page Kindergarten
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