The Somerville Public School district recognizes the importance of early childhood education. The Somerville Preschool Program is open to all Somerville residents whose child reaches four years of age by October 1 of that school year.

The district firmly supports the New Jersey Department of Education's definition of preschool as "An organized educational program provided in a nurturing and secure environment." The district endorses the New Jersey Department of Education's Preschool Teaching and Learning Expectations: Standards of Quality (July 2004). In order to meet these expectations, the Somerville Public School district offers students a wide range of experiences using the High/Scope Model to early childhood education.

Through active learning, young children construct knowledge that helps them make sense of their world. Young children engage in key experiences including creative, ongoing interactions with people, materials, and ideas that promote children's mental, emotional, social, and physical growth. These experiences involve children in activities such as pretending and role playing, having fun with language, building relationships with other children and adults, expressing creativity in movement, singing, sorting and matching, counting objects, fitting objects together and taking them apart, and anticipating events.

The curricula offers a variety of themes as the vehicles to focus on integrating instruction in emergent academic skills in the areas of language arts literacy, mathematics, science, social studies, world languages, physical education, health, and social-emotional development. By relating activities through themes, children's generalization of knowledge and skills from one experience to the next is facilitated. Theme teaching provides students access to the topic in ways that best suit their individual learning styles.

In educating young children, the district recognizes the value of school and home partnerships. It encourages opportunities and supports initiatives that foster these positive relationships that benefit children, especially in the area of early literacy.