Preschool Gang

The Preschool Gang is a group of four characters that were representative of JumpStart's preschool and prekindergarten media from the mid 90s to the early 2000s. The Preschool Gang consisted of Eleanor, Kisha, Pierre, and Casey.

History
The Preschool Gang debuted in JumpStart Preschool (1995). In 1996, they appeared in JumpStart Pre-K with only slightly modified character designs. All four characters also had cameos in JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Haunted Island. The next major appearance of the Preschool Gang was in JumpStart Preschool (1998), in which all of the characters were redesigned and given more unique and definitive personality traits. Certain aspects of characterizations introduced in this game have remained in recent media. For example, this game established Eleanor as dainty and bookish, Kisha as artsy, and Casey as active and playful.

In 1999, the JumpStart Gang appeared in the animated video JumpStart Preschool: Who Left the Juice in the Caboose?. They subsequently appeared in the game JumpStart ABC's. Around this time, the main characters from the preschool through second grade media started to appear together, when previously they had only appeared in media at their designated grade levels. Although characters such as Frankie, Hopsalot, CJ, and Edison started to appear alongside the Preschool Gang, they still remained iconic to the preschool grade level.

The Preschool Gang appeared in the preschool version of JumpStart Around the World in 2000. In this game, the characters serve as the player's travel buddies as they go on round-the-world trips.

Around 2000 and 2001, the Preschool Gang appeared in various Scholastic workbooks and readers. All of the Scholastic books aimed at the prekindergarten level primarily feature the Preschool Gang.

In 2002, the Preschool Gang appeared in JumpStart Advanced Preschool. Although the JumpStart Advanced series features all of the main characters from previous preschool through 2nd grade media, each game in the series seems to most prominently feature the character(s) that were previously representative of the game's grade level. In JumpStart Advanced Preschool, the Preschool Gang is more prominent than the other characters. The only exception to this is Frankie, who became the main mascot character around this time, and thus has a prominent role in all of the games.

Subsequent to the Advanced series, the Preschool Gang ceased to appear as a group. Eleanor, Pierre, and Kisha continue to appear as main cast members with no grade level associated with them. Casey was absent from the franchise until the JumpStart Academy series, in which he is a minor character who doesn't appear alongside the others, and also has no associated grade level.