Pirate Pete
Preschool
“From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow. ~Aeschylus”
CALL US: 1-847-755-1739
ABOUT US
Pirate Pete Preschool has been a part of the history of Palatine High School for over 40 years! High school students who enter our program often have the goal of becoming a teacher or social worker as well as other professions who work with children.
We cover curricular areas such as math, pre-reading, pre-writing, art, music, science, story time and more games involving large and small motor skills as well as introductions to technology.
Themes are chosen per week and all lessons are based around said themes. We strive to create lessons and materials that will inspire a life long love of learning and discovery!
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Our philosophy is...
...although each child's physical, social, emotional, & intellectual development varies widely, all children must be actively engaged with their environment in order to reach optimum levels of development. This means their surroundings need to be safe, open, enticing, & available for children to explore & create.
Child Safety
Keeping our little pirates safe is a part of being on our ship, we practice fire, tornado and lock-down drills with our high school teachers and the preschoolers throughout the school year.
Children are escorted into the preschool room by Pirate Pete Preschool teachers and are escorted out of the building the the same way.
​Our Staff

Our preschool program is a lab based program which runs 3 days a week for about 2.5 hours each of those days. There is a certified teacher in the room with the high school students and preschoolers at all times as the high school students take on the roles of teacher and assistant teachers. The certified teacher then assesses the high schoolers and offers assistance when needed. Lessons are planned, written and executed with the approval of the head certified teacher.
Palatine High School students who have successfully completed our Early Childhood Studies course are given the opportunity to work in our Pirate Pete Preschool Program. These students have been trained in caring for children ranging in ages from birth to school age. They have earned a Level 1 Credential from the Gateways to Opportunity Program through the State of Illinois allowing them to work with children in these age groups in an early childhood setting.
Parental Involvement
In the typical year, parents are free to drop in any time to see their student or to scope us out for a potential student. However, please remember this is a lab class in a high school and you will need proper identification when coming into the building and will then be given a PHS escort to walk you to our room. Also, due to COVID restrictions, we are limiting the admittance of parents to our room at this time.