New STEAM Preschool in Pleasanton focuses on job preparation

PLEASANTON, Calif. (KGO) -- California public schools are preparing students for the next generation of jobs, but one school in Pleasanton is starting with kids that can't even tie their own shoes yet. ABC7 News got an inside look at a school that is no longer about cookies and naps.

The new STEAM Preschool in Pleasanton opened Friday and concepts like science, technology, engineering, art and math will be introduced at a very young age.

For 15 minutes a day the students will use iPads to learn other ways of reading a text.

Traci Peterson from STEAM Preschool explained, "Not only does it have books, it will read to you. It has games for phonics and letter sounds."

In science, an electricity globe helps Jacob learn about static.

Trying to build anything piece-by-piece is how many engineers start out.

Here's something I didn't learn in preschool, architectural marvels like the Stonehenge and Machu Picchu. Heck, at 3 years old I didn't even know how to pronounce them.

"We have no idea what jobs will be available then, but we want them to have skills that will translate to any job that may be created," Peterson said.

While the preschool is supervised by the Pleasanton Unified School District, parents pay a tuition that is more than $1,300 a month.

For math, the teachers use cooking as a way to introduce measurements.

"They follow a recipe and you talk about fractions, you talk about a cup and a half a cup," Shannon Colacchia from STEAM Preschool said.

It's all part of the learning process.