Contrary to the popular view of school readiness as the mastery of academic skills, Russian Vygotskians emphasize the importance of amplifying age-appropriate preschool activities (such as socio-dramatic play, constructive play, listening to and retelling fairy tales, playing with dollhouses, etc.) that foster such major components of psychological school readiness as motivation to learn, self-regulation, symbolic thought, and non-egocentric perspective. A research team led by Leonid Venger developed a preschool curriculum based on these age-specific activities, which has been successfully used to support school readiness among Russian children. We adapted the core activities of this curriculum to teach pre-K students -predominantly African American and Hispanic - at a public elementary school in Harlem, New York. The adapted curriculum effectively promoted self-regulation, symbolic thought, and a growing interest in learning among these preschoolers.