El Cerrito Preschool Cooperative Summer Camp

El Cerrito Preschool Cooperative Summer Camp includes a short opening group time, large group time with music, stories, and games, and small group time with one adult and 4–5 children playing games, making crafts, or reading. Children have free play in the large front yard, backyard, and indoor areas such as the art area, block and loft room, and game room, with access to tricycles, swings, climbing structures, and creative free play. The program offers daily open-ended art projects, frequent science and cooking projects, backyard play, Messy Art Day, Yoga, Weaving, Stuffy Veterinarian Classes, and observing caterpillars grow into butterflies while taking care of Native Plant Gardens and watching birds, butterflies, and insects in those gardens.

• Ages: 2 years 9 months–5 years old
• Schedule: Limited 5-week summer camp program, with the summer camp day running 9am–1pm

El Cerrito Preschool Cooperative Summer Camp is a play-based parent participation cooperative preschool program where a director, a teacher, and five to six parent participators make up the staff each day, and the adult-to-child ratio is less than 1:4. Parents assist the licensed and trained professional teachers in the classroom on a weekly basis, and each family shares in the business operation of the school through family jobs and maintenance parties in this nonprofit, parent-run preschool. The program includes weekly visits from a music teacher in the morning and afternoon, as well as hands-on presentations from El Cerrito firefighters, librarians, Tilden Park naturalists, The Bug Mobile, The Vivarium, and others. A healthy snack is available in the kitchen throughout the program, and children bring a lunch from home with teachers and parents available to facilitate. El Cerrito Preschool Cooperative has been serving families in the greater Bay Area community since 1940 and is celebrating 85 years as one of the longest continuously running cooperatives in the United States. The program operates as a California Department of Social Services licensed preschool (Preschool #070200235, School Age #070210526) and a 501(c)3 organization, and its mission states that children learn best through self-directed play, with projects that are open-ended and an emphasis on supporting children’s emotional and social development through problem solving, listening, self-expression, and practicing self-regulation.

Last updated April 13, 2026.