Collaborative Classroom Announces Publication of Pinecone Path, A Literacy Curriculum for the Year Before Kindergarten

ALAMEDA, Calif., May 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Collaborative Classroom, a leading nonprofit publisher of early childhood and K–12 instructional materials, announces a new early literacy program, Pinecone Path™: A Curriculum for the Year Before Kindergarten.

A fully articulated and play-rich curriculum that aligns with literacy science, Pinecone Path develops literacy, oral language, social skills, and executive functioning skills to ensure that children enter elementary school ready to thrive. Pinecone Path is designed to serve as a literacy curriculum for the year before kindergarten; it can also be used as a flexible supplemental curriculum for any Transitional Kindergarten or PreK setting.

"Pinecone Path gives me great confidence as a teacher because I know that what I'm doing is right, and that it's working for kids and helping them grow in all of the areas that kids need as they get ready for the grades to come." —PreK educator 

A Proven Pathway to Kindergarten Literacy Readiness

Aligned with the research on early childhood development, Pinecone Path:

• Builds on the proven success of the evidence-based SEEDS of Learning™ Professional Learning Framework
• Meets state and national standards
• Is aligned with practices encouraged by professional organizations such as Head Start and the National Association for the Education of Young Children

The program supports children's growth across three key areas of development:

Pinecone Path emphasizes research-based best practices to support educators in fostering foundational relationships and integrates self-regulation and social skills development using developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive practices. 

A Comprehensive Literacy Curriculum: Everything PreK Teachers Need in One Package

Educators using Pinecone Path thrive with ready-made tools to blend playful learning and explicit instruction.

The flexible design of Pinecone Path makes it easy for educators to adapt the program to the unique needs of their classrooms, schedules, and routines, thanks to:

• Short, fully articulated lessons that fit easily into the busy day
• A generous array of play center activities designed to complement learning
• Embedded professional learning in every lesson and 24/7 implementation support for educator questions

"Prior to starting with Pinecone Path, many teachers were doing their own lesson planning and coming up with their own tools and resources. Now, with Pinecone Path, our teachers feel more confident because they know they are teaching what the students need." —PreK leader 

Part of a Coherent Instructional Journey from PreK Through Grade 5

Pinecone Path is instructionally coherent and aligned with the evidence-based and highly regarded comprehensive K–5 ELA curriculum Collaborative Literacy (comprising the Being a Reader™ and Being a Writer™ programs). Students who experience Pinecone Path's comprehensive early literacy instruction during the year before kindergarten are primed for reading and writing success with Collaborative Literacy throughout elementary school.

Through a yearlong prepublication pilot, Wisconsin's Belleville School District is already implementing Pinecone Path in its PreK classrooms alongside Collaborative Literacy in grades K–5. "[A]ligning instruction from PreK–grade 5 is going to make an even stronger impact on our students and their learning," says Melissa Riedel, Assistant Principal for Belleville.

On May 6, Hear from Educators Who Piloted Pinecone Path

On May 6, 2026, Collaborative Classroom will hold a panel webinar, "From Implementation to Impact: How Pinecone Path Is Transforming Early Literacy Instruction," with PreK educators who have implemented Pinecone Path in their schools as part of a national, yearlong prepublication pilot.

Webinar panelists will share their firsthand experiences navigating the shift to a research-based literacy curriculum rooted in the science of reading, the impact on children's literacy growth and readiness to become confident, capable learners, and the practicalities of a yearlong rollout.

To register for the May 6 webinar, visit the registration site here. All registrants will receive the webinar recording.

Collaborative Classroom Offers Comprehensive Early Childhood Solutions

With the publication of Pinecone Path, Collaborative Classroom now provides three distinct solutions in its rapidly growing early childhood portfolio: 

• Every Child Ready, a comprehensive, play-rich PreK curriculum that covers all domains of learning and provides two years of differentiated instruction with integrated teacher supports; available in Spanish and English
• SEEDS of Learning, a curriculum-agnostic professional learning framework designed to enhance the instructional quality of any early childhood program, through the training and coaching of educators
• Pinecone Path, a science-of-reading-aligned literacy curriculum for the year before kindergarten that also teaches oral language, executive functioning, and social skills

The addition of Pinecone Path to Collaborative Classroom's early childhood portfolio uniquely positions the organization to broaden its impact and offer a comprehensive, coherent array of early childhood curricula and professional learning solutions that meet a wide variety of needs.

ABOUT COLLABORATIVE CLASSROOM

Collaborative Classroom is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization committed to ensuring that all students become readers, writers, and thinkers who learn from, care for, and respect one another.

As one of the few nonprofit organizations in the country that develop, disseminate, and implement curriculum at scale, Collaborative Classroom is dedicated to putting students, educators, and research at the center of every decision and providing personalized, cutting-edge implementation supports for the schools and students it serves.

The organization's evidence-based programs and innovative professional learning are used by educators in all 50 states in more than a thousand school districts. Collaborative Classroom's portfolio of solutions spans preschool and prekindergarten through grade 8, with some curricula extending through grades 9–12.

Since the organization's founding, Collaborative Classroom's work has reached more than 10 million students and 440,000 educators across the country, developing fluent readers and skilled writers, supporting instructional equity, transforming discipline practices, and bolstering student and teacher engagement.

Learn more about Collaborative Classroom at collaborativeclassroom.org.

SOURCE Collaborative Classroom