Cathedral Park Preschool
Exploring Our World Through Play, Community, and Cooperation.
Cathedral Park Cooperative Preschool was started by parents more than 30 years ago. We’ve occupied our classrooms in Portsmouth Trinity Lutheran Church for the same amount of time. Although we have no affiliation with the church, we have maintained an excellent relationship with them and have appreciated the opportunity to rent their space.
In all of the years since we moved to our current location, we’ve had only five teachers. The low turnover rate has greatly contributed to the stability of the school. We’ve been a part of the North Portland community for decades, and are delighted that adults who attended the preschool as children are now bringing their own children back to enjoy the co-op experience.
Cathedral Park Preschool is a cooperative preschool. We provide an environment where parents and children learn and grow together through play. We offer a social learning environment by providing hands on art activities, music, literature, language and free play.
Our preschool’s goal is to:
- Enhance each child’s self-image and concept of self-worth.
- Prepare a child for a successful transition into primary school.
- Help parents improve their own parenting skills and to increase their self-understanding.
Learn through Play
Play is a child’s work. Young children learn from play. They learn everything they need to know to function in the world. Their play is purposeful and is not as random as it may seem to appear.
Play is:
- Critical to all aspects of a child’s development.
- Often overlooked by parents as a valuable tool.
- A preventive measure to discipline problems.
- Offers a natural way for a child to learn.
- Essential in forming a positive relationship between parent and child.
When I play with letter games, I’m learning:
- To recognize and name upper and lower case letters.
- To associate letters with the sounds they represent.
- To recognize my name and certain words.
When I paint or draw, I’m learning:
- To hold a pencil or other drawing implements and control the pressure.
- Eye-hand coordination.
- To exercise my creativity and imagination.
- That my ideas have value.
- The concepts of color, shape, size and location.
- To express myself with words to describe my drawing.
When I sort things, I’m learning:
- To notice details, likenesses and differences of objects while forming categories.
- The concepts of color, size and shape.
- The concepts of more and less.
- Logical reasoning.