March 💚Sham-ROCKED💚 At Critchlow Adkins!

March 2025

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Critchlow Adkins Children's Centers' mission is to provide quality, financially accessible childcare for children and their families in a nurturing, diverse, safe, and enriching environment.

March Sham-ROCKED At Critchlow Adkins!

Your little leprechauns experienced a rainbow of activity this month, thanks to your support! With St. Patrick's Day, Mardi Gras, and the first day of Spring, there was no shortage of celebrations. We are so lucky that your generosity also leads our kids to a lifelong love of learning, which is worth more than gold!

We hope you will take a moment to watch the video below and see some of the smiles that YOU made possible this month!

Look At What We've Been Up To!

St. Patrick's Day Shenanigans!

The students at our St. Michaels Site were in all their green glory this month, with tons of fun activities to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. They made shamrock art, drank delicious shamrock shakes, had a hilarious photo booth session with props and costumes, and even spent time imagining what they would do if they were leprechauns. Everyone was "greening" from ear to ear!

Engineering Excitement!

At our Easton School Age Site, the students absolutely love their visits from the Easton High School Interact Club! This month, they put on their engineering caps to explore chain reactions. After reading the books, Those Darn Squirrels by Adam Rubin and Just Like Rube Goldberg: The Incredible Story of the Man Behind the Machines by Sarah Aronson, the children broke into teams to create their own chain reactions. Miss Amy also visited the site to celebrate Dr. Seuss. In honor of The Cat in the Hat, the kids worked together to stack cups using only string, tension, and teamwork. Exploring balance further, they created structures using building materials and then had a silly relay race where they had to keep their creations balanced on their fingers, their noses, and more!

Spring Has Sprung!

We don't know about you, but we were eagerly awaiting the first day of Spring on March 20th! Our Easton Preschool Site has taken full advantage of the warming weather, spending lots of time outside on the recently-refurbished playground (thank you, donors!), and enjoying picnics with friends. Springtime also means the return of creepy crawlies, and the students in Room 4 kicked off a new lesson on insects with an outdoor bug hunt, insect art, and more!

Read Across Cordova!

The week of March 2nd was Read Across America Week! Each year, Read Across America kicks off on the birthday of beloved children's author Dr. Seuss, and our children, like many others across the nation, participate in lots of activities to encourage their love of reading! At our Cordova Site, the students ate Green Eggs and Ham, made and enjoyed a Trufula Tree snack in honor of The Lorax, and explored chemistry while making Oobleck, a STEAM activity inspired by Bartholomew and the Oobleck!

We know our children had a blast, yes indeed...

We love inspiring Critchlow Adkins Kids to read!

Taking A Bite Out Of Oral Health!

Health and wellness are a big part of our Critchlow Adkins curriculum. This month, our White Marsh Site commemorated National Oral Health Day with a visit from the Tooth Fairy's helper, who demonstrated how to properly care for their teeth. They also did a fascinating eggs-periment to discover what happens to our teeth when we drink water as compared to when we drink soda.

Better When We're Dancing!

Students from all of our sites participated in what has now become an annual Critchlow Adkins tradition - creating a video for the Talbot Interfaith Shelter Lip Sync Battle fundraiser! One of the most important lessons we teach our children is giving back to our community, and this event shows them how fun it can be to help others.

This is our 4th year participating in the Lip Sync Battle. Last year, our kids raised more than $3,000 to help our neighbors move from homelessness to self-sufficiency! We hope you will take a moment to watch our video, then, if you are so inclined, click the button below to vote for Critchlow Adkins in the Lip Sync Battle by making a donation of any size to Talbot Interfaith Shelter!

Vote For Critchlow Adkins!

Our students participate in many community outreach initiatives each year. Click the button below to learn more about how CACC Gives Back!

CACC Gives Back

Celebrating 55 Years!

2025 marks an incredible milestone in our Critchlow Adkins history: 55 years of providing exceptional, affordable, and educational childcare to our community! We were honored to kick off our 55th anniversary celebrations by receiving recognition at the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting and Business Awards.

Thank you to the Chamber President & CEO, Amy Kreiner - pictured above with our Development Director, Liz Connelly, and our Executive Director, Cristy Morrell - for helping us to share this auspicious occasion with our community!

It is only thanks to the ongoing generosity of our extraordinary supporters that we have been able to serve local families for 55 years, and we hope that, together, we will continue Building Brighter Futures for many more years to come!

Women To Watch!

Please join us in congratulating all five of our amazing Site Directors on being nominated as 2025 APG Women to Watch! Each of these women puts unending dedication, passion, and heart into providing the best childcare experience possible for the children and families we serve.

Melissa Johnson - Cordova

Donna Austin - Easton Preschool

Keieve Colbert - Easton School Age

Marlene Thomas - St. Michaels

Annetta Biscoe - White Marsh

We would also like to congratulate our White Marsh Site Director, Annetta Biscoe, on her new office space. Annetta has worked at Critchlow Adkins for an astounding 46 YEARS, and has been the Director at White Marsh for 8 years. We are thrilled that she now has a permanent space of her own, where she can focus on the incredible job she does running the site.

We could not be more proud of each and every one of our Site Directors. Critchlow Adkins and all of our families are so very fortunate to have them leading our sites!

Meet Steve Leder!

Each month, we have the pleasure of introducing you to a member of our Critchlow Adkins family. This month, we are excited for you to meet one of our dedicated volunteers, Steve Leder!

Steve is a retired attorney from Baltimore. He and his wife, Gerri, purchased a home in Bozman in 2007 and came back and forth from Baltimore every weekend. When they retired, they settled near Royal Oak.

Steve enjoys cycling, hiking, kayaking, and spending time with friends and family.

Seeing all of their friends delight in their time with their grandchildren inspired Steve to volunteer with Critchlow Adkins and make an impact on the lives of the children in our programs.

Steve has been visiting the preschoolers at our St. Michaels Site for nearly a year and a half. Each Tuesday, he reads books to the children as they wait to be picked up by their parents.

Reflecting on the time he spends with our little ones, Steve shares, “I like interacting with the 4-year-olds. They are bubbly, interested, and mischievous. Some days, their interest flags and you can’t get through a book. Other days, they keep bringing more and more over for me to read aloud. They are more interested in books about unicorns, I notice, than books by Dr. Seuss.”

When asked what he loves about volunteering with Critchlow Adkins, Steve says, “I am impressed with the dedication, generosity, and warmth of the teaching staff, and that Critchlow Adkins offers available, affordable, and safe childcare. Plus, who wouldn’t love to spend time with a dozen active 4-year-olds?”

Steve, thank you so much for taking the time to make a difference in our children's lives. We are so grateful to you! Here’s to many more years of sharing stories together!

A March STEAM Project YOU Can Do At Home!

This month, our sites launched themselves into Spring while learning about potential and kinetic energy with this super simple Rubber Band Rocket experiment. You can do this easy and fun activity at home with your future rocket scientist!

Before reaching for the stars, read Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson's Super Soaking Stream of Inventions, by Chris Barton. This is the true story of NASA engineer and inventor Lonnie Johnson. While trying to create a new cooling system for refrigerators and air conditioners, Lonnie created the mechanics for what would end up being one of the most popular toys ever - the Super Soaker!

Now that you have some inspiration, it's time to blast off into our experiment! As we mentioned above, this activity is designed to explore potential and kinetic energy. Potential energy is stored energy - it is ready to make things happen. Kinetic energy is the energy of movement - it's happening! Potential energy can be converted into kinetic energy. For example, when you stretch out a rubber band, you are creating potential energy, and when you let go and it flies through the air, you have created kinetic energy!

All you need to launch are 2 paper or plastic cups and 3 rubber bands. To make your "rocket," place 2 rubber bands lengthwise across one of the cups, making a cross shape over the opening. Then, place a third rubber band around the outside of the cup to hold the others in place.

Next, place your other cup upside down on a flat surface. Put your "rocket" over the base cup. Holding the lip of the "rocket cup, pull down (potential energy) and release (kinetic energy)! Watch your rocket go flying!

Click here to check out the full experiment from KiwiCo!

As always, be as creative as you want, and have lots of fun learning together! Follow our Facebook and Instagram pages to see a new STEAM project every week on "STEAM Saturday!"

You Bring So Much Color To Our World!

Every day at Critchlow Adkins is as varied as the colors of the rainbow. You help color our children's worlds by providing engaging opportunities to explore, learn, and grow so they can build a bridge to the future!

Consider helping our students chase the rainbow of knowledge year-round by establishing a recurring monthly donation!

I Want To Become A Monthly Donor!

Support Critchlow Adkins While Shopping!

Connect your Harris Teeter VIC card to Critchlow Adkins via the Together in Education Program, and when you purchase the brands listed below, you help earn money to support our programs!