The Little Brooklyn Pre-K Center At 173-177 25th Street

Children at The Little Brooklyn Pre-K Center on 25th Street visit the grocery store on the corner, a Turkish restaurant around the corner, a nearby Laundromat and Greenwood Cemetery. They learn how to bake bread from popular Baked in Brooklyn. The 4-year-olds pick pumpkins, and bring them back to the classroom to count the seeds and measure the circumference of the fruit.

Parents volunteer to be "mystery readers" and bring in a dish for the "feast of thanks." Some share an expertise, such as an art lesson, or read a book aloud in Spanish. They are invited in for special projects every month [see photo from Facebook page]. "We love visitors and exploring the neighborhood," said Maria Interlandi, who oversees the program. 

Opened in 2015, the Center has six classrooms in a former parochial school next to Our Lady of Czestochowa-St. Casimir Roman Catholic Church. On a leafy side street with wide sidewalks, lodged between 4th Avenue and the Gowanus Expressway, it has an outdoor playground big enough for tricycles and ball games.

The four Little Brooklyn Pre-K Centers (two in Sunset Park, one in Gowanus, one in Park Slope) are supervised by Interlandi, District 15's Director of Early Childhood. A long-time Brooklyn educator and assistant principal of PS 94, she takes inspiration from K-280, at the Bishop Ford School site in Windsor Terrace, which has a popular inquiry-based approach.

Pre-K centers are run by the Department of Education. There are more than 70 centers throughout the city in schools and community centers.

ADMISSIONS: Visit The Little Brooklyn Pre-K Center website and Facebook page for more information. (Lydie Raschka, phone interview, November 2016)