Raising Focus on Pre-K 4s: Boston's free curriculum for 4-year-olds
Focus on Pre-K is the free preschool curriculum that Boston Public Schools uses in its own classrooms for 4-year-olds. The 4s edition has four themed units that fill a school year, a week-by-week plan for each unit, and math through Building Blocks. It's licensed for noncommercial use, and every file opens without a sign-up.
Boston Focus on Pre-K (4s) at a glance
| Made by | Boston Public Schools, Department of Early Childhood (U.S. public school district) |
|---|---|
| Ages | 4 |
| Type | Complete |
| Length | 4 units of 43–45 school days (about 175 days, 2026–27 calendar) |
| Format | Google Docs and Google Drive PDFs, plus a one-page PDF pacing calendar |
| License | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 |
| Sign-up | No |
| Faith | Secular |
| Edition | Pacing calendar for 2026–27 |
| Official page | bostonpublicschools.org |
Checked October 28, 2026 on the owner's site.
What it is and who made it
Boston Public Schools runs public pre-K classrooms for 4-year-olds (called K1 in Boston), and its Department of Early Childhood writes its own curriculum for them. Focus on Pre-K: 4s is that curriculum, published online. Each unit is built around one theme of 43 to 45 school days, and each has an arc document: a Google Doc with the unit's week-by-week plan and links to the other pieces.
It's written for teachers in a full-day classroom, so it assumes a group of children, learning centers, and a daily schedule. That's why the files can look overwhelming the first time you open them. A parent doesn't need all of it.
Units and length
- Together in Our Community — 45 days
- Building Our Working City — 43 days
- Animals All Around Us — 44 days
- Growing and Changing — 43 days
School days per unit from the owner's pacing calendar. At home, a unit often takes less time.
What's inside
4 themed units, each with a week-by-week plan; read-alouds, centers, vocabulary, Building Blocks math, take-home links.
Parts of the day the program plans for:
- Community Meeting
- Vocabulary
- Read Aloud
- Centers
- Writing
- Foundational Literacy
- Storytelling and Story Acting
- Math (Building Blocks)
- Home Links
Areas of learning covered:
- Language and literacy
- Math
- Science and engineering
- Social studies (through the themes)
- Art
- Fine motor skills
How a parent could use it at home
- Start with the pacing calendar and the Unit 1 arc document. Together they show the shape of the year in a few pages.
- Pick one theme at a time. The unit lengths are set for a school calendar; at home, you can move on sooner or stay longer, depending on your child's interest.
- Use the book lists as your library list. Reading aloud every day is the part of any preschool program that's easiest to do at home.
- Skip the parts that need a class: rotations, group roles, and room setup. Keep the conversations, the books, and a hands-on project now and then.
- Do the math part with real objects you already have: spoons, blocks, socks. Short stretches work well.
These tips are ours, not the program's.
The license in plain words
It's licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. In plain words: you may use, copy, and adapt it if you credit Boston Public Schools and share any changes under the same license. You may not use it commercially (for example, in a paid class or product). The license covers the owner's own material; third-party items, such as children's books or Building Blocks, may carry other terms.
Download Boston Focus on Pre-K (4s) from the source
Files open on Boston Public Schools's own site. We don't host copies.
FAQ
Is Focus on Pre-K free?
Yes, Focus on Pre-K is free. Boston Public Schools publishes the whole curriculum online at no cost and without a sign-up. It's licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, so you can use, share, and adapt it for noncommercial purposes if you credit Boston Public Schools and share changes under the same license. Third-party materials it mentions, such as children's books or Building Blocks, may carry other terms.
What age is Focus on Pre-K for?
The 4s edition is for 4-year-olds in the year before kindergarten, which Boston calls K1. Boston also publishes a separate 3s edition for 3-year-olds, with five units of 34 to 41 school days each. If you have a child turning 4 partway through the year, the owner's pacing calendars for both editions show how long each unit runs.
Can I use Focus on Pre-K for homeschool preschool?
Yes, you can use Focus on Pre-K at home as long as the use is noncommercial. It's written for classrooms, so expect to trim: keep the themes, the books, and the conversations, and drop the parts that need a group of children, such as center rotations. The week-by-week plan in each unit's arc document is the easiest place to start.
Similar free programs
- Focus on Pre-K: 3s · 3-year-olds · 5 units of 34–41 school days (about 177 days, 2026–27 calendar)
- NYC Pre-K for All Interdisciplinary Units of Study · 4-year-olds · 10 units over a school year (Unit 1 runs four weeks)
- Pre-K for ME — official page · 4-year-olds · 6 units
Our own 36-week preschool plan
Alongside the programs above, we made a plan of our own for the part of the day most curricula give little room to: feelings, waiting, trying again, and getting along. Sign in with a code from your email and the PDF downloads right away.