About Us

At Prince of Peace Preschool, we believe that children learn best through play and hands-on exploration. Our indoor and outdoor classrooms provide a fun and stimulating learning environment where children can investigate and explore using their tremendous curiosity while developing kindergarten readiness skills. Our students explore our outdoor nature playground and garden year-round and on a daily basis. One of our primary goals is to develop a positive self-image in each child while practicing social, cognitive and language skills; affirming that he or she is a unique, special person. We utilize Creative Curriculum by Teaching Strategies to guide our learning with studies and activities that enable children to develop confidence, creativity, and life-long critical thinking skills. In addition, we utilize Learning Without Tears for pre-writing and incorporate a variety of music, process art, and gross/fine motor activities throughout the school day.

Learn more about our teachers here.

Preschool News

Do we still “Stop, Drop and Roll?”

Now that our students are used to their classroom routines and have become a classroom community, it is time to focus on safety routines just in time for Fire Prevention Week! Before diving into studies and celebrating the fall holidays and seasonal changes, our students will learn about community helpers and fire safety. We will introduce fire and the other safety drills we practice so that if we ever need to, we know what to do and can do it calmly! Loud fire alarms and leaving the building without packing up our backpacks, snack bags and special possessions can be disconcerting to young children. To get used to this new routine, we read stories, use a social story, play recordings of our fire alarm at a lower volume, and practice how to walk out with their teachers. The teachers will note who may need a bit of extra help and reassurance so we are prepared if we ever need to do a real evacuation. After we are used to these routines, we will have a special visit from the Old Tappan Fire Department, a cool big truck with ginormous tires, and their volunteers. One of the highlights is touring the truck and seeing all of the firefighting tools. This is exciting for our young children, but for us as early childhood educators, the most important part of the visit is when the volunteers take their masks and respirators on and off so that our students can see that there are real people behind the helmets and masks, and they are the helpers. One of our local volunteers, Ron Binaghi, (Also Farmer Ron Sr. of Stokes Farm ) would do this with our students over 20 years ago, and we still request this activity every year. The last thing we want is for children to hide from firefighters in their unusual gear that make Darth Vader like noises if they ever need their help to get out of a building. We also have fun this week! We use squirt bottles to put out pretend fires in the water table, play with toy fire trucks, do fire truck floor puzzles, learn about those cute dalmatians, try on fire fighter outfits in our dramatic play centers, put out fires with our paper towel roll fire hoses, and learn fun songs. And yes, we still practice, Stop, Drop and Roll!
For more information about what you can do as a family, visit For Families | Sparky School House. Fred Rogers often told this story about when he was a boy and would see scary things on the news: “My mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.”

For more information about POPPS Preschool, please visit www.princeofpeacepreschoolnj.org, email us at prek@princeofpeacenj.org, or call us at 201 965-3354.

Health & Safety

Prince of Peace Preschool is licensed to operate as a Childcare Center from the NJ Office of Children and Families (OFC). All regulations from the OFC and recommendations from the Board of Health will be followed and may change at any time due to community health issues and regulations and recommendations are updated.
At this time:
*Masks are optional at POPPS.
*Students will have their own bin and cubby to store their extra clothes, water bottle, and personal use materials that will be separate from other students’ belongings.
*We ask that you perform a daily health check before coming to school. More information is available in our parent handbook.
*Students wash upon entry to our program and frequently throughout the school day. We have an outdoor sink and hand sanitizer available on our playground.
*Each indoor classroom will have a room air filter with windows ajar to promote air circulation.
*As research and regulations are updated periodically, these measures may be updated as guidance from the OFC, CDC and the Bergen County Board of Health change.