Your Support Makes Our World Go Round!💙💚

April 2025

Newsletter

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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.

Your Support Makes Our World Go Round!

April was the perfect month for enriching and fun adventures! With the warmer weather, our little learners spent lots of time outside exploring bugs, plants, and playing, and also enjoyed Easter egg hunts and Earth Day celebrations. There was also lots of time spent in the classrooms on literature-based STEAM activities, creative crafts, commemorating the Week of the Young Child with theme days, and much more!

We hope you will take a minute to watch the video below to see just a few of the smiling faces YOU made possible this month!

Look At What We've Been Up To!

Slimy Science!

The student scientists at our Easton School Age Site continue to have a blast learning with the Easton High School Interact Club and our Program and Outreach Specialist, Amy Michaels. This month, they explored chemical reactions while making two different kinds of slime. In one recipe, they added chalkboard paint, which made it possible for the students to draw on the slime! The second batch was a rubbery slime. They placed a small ball of slime on the end of the straw and were able to blow large bubbles that bounced into the air. Talk about spectacular science!

Egg-citing Adventures!

Our Easton Preschool Site hopped on the bus to meet the Easter Bunny at the Candle Light Cove Easter Egg Hunt! They also had a second egg hunt at the site, ensuring our kids had baskets piled high with treats. Speaking of treats, the children had a big one when officers from Easton PD stopped by to run the lights and sirens and introduce their K-9 pup!

Down To Earth!

Last Tuesday was Earth Day, and our St. Michaels Site really dug into the celebrations! They did lots of Earth Day-themed crafts, planted flowers, and went outside to pick up trash. They even made a special Earth Day snack, complete with dirt (crushed Oreos) and earthworms (gummy worms)!

Saluting Our Students!

April 5th kicked off the Week of the Young Child. This annual celebration was created by the National Association for the Education of Young Children to shine a spotlight on the importance of early childhood education. Our White Marsh Site got into the spirit with a theme week. The kids enjoyed Musical Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Work Together Wednesday, and Artsy Thursday. They ended the week with Family Friday, inviting parents and special friends to join the fun!

Good Hearts and Good Health!

Our Cordova Site students started off the month by painting colorful "kindness rocks" with special messages and placing them around the school grounds to brighten the days of their fellow students. This month, the children also continued their Anti-Tobacco activities, thanks to a grant from the Talbot County Health Department. They decorated flower pots and planted flowers. They also had their annual Anti-Tobacco t-shirt design contest, and the winner was.... (drumroll, please)... Collins!

Critchlow Adkins Gives Back!

As we mentioned in our last newsletter, children from all five of our sites participated once again in Talbot Interfaith Shelter's Lip Sync Battle fundraiser. The finale event was last Saturday, and Critchlow Adkins exceeded our $1,000 fundraising goal to raise $1,456 to help our neighbors overcome homelessness! To date, our amazing kids have raised more than $6,200 for TIS!

Our White Marsh Site is once again collecting change for Talbot Hospice, and our friend Vera is anxious to make you a friendship bracelet to thank you for your donation! Check out her adorable video!

If you would like to donate to Hospice and receive a friendship bracelet, send your donation to our White Marsh Site, c/o Annetta Biscoe, 4232 Lovers Lane, Trappe, MD 21673.

Congratulations to our St. Michaels Site, who spent the month of March collecting change for Shriner's Children's Hospital. At the end of the month, they had a counting party and discovered that they had collected $325 to help hospitalized children! We are beyond proud of our staff and students, who go above and beyond to be good citizens and give back to our community.

Click the button below to learn about more of our Critchlow Adkins Gives Back initiatives!

CACC Gives Back

Our Preschool Site Is EXCEL-ing!

All five of our sites have earned Accreditation and EXCELS (Excellence Counts in Early Learning and School Age Care) Check Level 5 Ratings from the Maryland State Department of Education. These are voluntary processes during which our sites are evaluated on a number of factors to determine whether they meet rigorous state criteria. Accreditation and EXCELS Check Level 5 are reserved for the highest quality childcare providers in the state.

Our Easton Preschool Site Director, Donna Austin has gone to the next level, applying for additional EXCELS badges for the site. To date, Donna and the Preschool Site have earned 4 additional badges, signifying that they have gone above and beyond in the following areas:

Health and Wellness

Military Families

Judy Center Partnership

Family Engagement

We are incredibly proud of Donna and the staff of the Preschool Site, and all of our sites for continuously striving to provide the best care possible for our children and their families!

Click here to learn more about the EXCELS Additional Achievements.

Out and About!

Executive Director Cristy Morrell, Development Director Liz Connelly were joined by several of our wonderful Board members at the Women & Girls Fund (WGF) Annual Luncheon on April 28th. Critchlow Adkins was honored to be one of this year's grant recipients. WGF awarded us a generous grant to help provide tuition assistance for children in our programs. We are so very grateful to the Women & Girls Fund for their ongoing partnership in helping to keep exceptional childcare accessible to families at all income levels!

We were also thrilled to attend the annual Talbot County Public Schools Community Partner Breakfast last week. Our partnership with TCPS is invaluable to Critchlow and the families that we serve. Our Easton Preschool Site is on TCPS property, and our other four sites (Easton School Age, St. Michaels, Cordova, and White Marsh) are located within Talbot County Elementary Schools. This eliminates transportation as a barrier to care, and ensures a seamless and safe transition for our students from our centers to their school day and back. Among other joint initiatives, last year we had the opportunity to assist the TCPS PreK program as they worked to achieve an EXCELS rating and full Accreditation from the Maryland State Department of Education. We are proud to be TCPS Community Partners!

An April STEAM Project YOU Can Do At Home!

As we mentioned above, Earth Day was on April 22nd. This month, we are sharing a simple and fun Earth Day-themed STEAM project that you can do at home with your favorite kiddos! Before stepping into your scientist shoes, read the book, Thank You Earth, by April Pulley Sayre.

This book is a thank you note to the Earth from the author, complete with photos and poems. It depicts the materials, shapes, and living things that make up our wonderful planet, from rocks and water to curves, lines and patterns to plants and animals! She ends the book with the line, "Thank you for beginnings, for endings, for lifetimes. Thank you for being our home."

Now it's time to celebrate the Earth while exploring chemical reactions with a fun experiment that uses materials you may already have at home! Here's what you'll need:

Baking soda

Distilled White Vinegar

Blue and Green Food Coloring

Small Cups or Bowls

Droppers

A Tray or Cake Pan

During this experiment, you'll see the chemical reaction that happens when baking soda and vinegar combine.

Click here to check out the full experiment from Little Bins for Little Hands as well as information about the science behind it!

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 Help Us Blossom And Grow!

Every day at Critchlow Adkins, you help plant the seeds that will help our children flourish into a Brighter Future!

Consider helping our students blossom and grow all year-round by establishing a recurring monthly donation!

I Want To Become A Monthly Donor!

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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!