Every August Miss Shannon, our Director, plans an end of the summer surprise. This year she rented a bounce house with a slide! The children are amazed when they see the large, colorful bounce house come to life on the playground (they also like watching it deflate)! We’re so happy we have a large grassy area that can accommodate it. …

Our infants in the Greece program show how exploring paint can engage their interest and stimulate learning!  Their teachers cut pieces of construction paper and drop dabs of pain on them inside of zip-lock bags.  This provides the babies a safe way to explore and manipulate the paint. The children squeezed, squished and swished their bags of paint with their …

  While learning about what lives under the sea, the Canandaigua preschoolers talked about  fish, whales, starfish, mermaids, and scuba divers. There are a lot of living creatures in the ocean!  On the last day of ocean week, the teachers helped to dress up the children who were interested as mermaids and scuba divers! The children practiced ‘swimming’ with a …

Young children find great pleasure in water play on warm days! At the Henrietta center, the teachers plan it for them at least once a week in the summer months! To encourage creative play, a variety of toys and materials are put into the water, including plastic animals, feathers, pouring/squirting toys, boats and sometimes pretend food! Pouring the water back …

The Greece toddlers enjoyed a week themed ‘Carnival Week’ over the summer!  A variety of new and different activities were offered.  These included taking funny pictures at the photo booth, playing games of toss the ball, and making homemade lemonade snow cones!  Great fun and many laughs were enjoyed by all!   

In the toddler room at the Canandaigua center, marble painting is a favorite art experience!  Marbles and paint are put into a low plastic pan with a piece of paper on the bottom.  The children then practice their shaking as they all say “shake, shake, shake” together!  When the shaking is done, a unique design is left on the paper …

All children thoroughly enjoy and benefit from outside play!  The Henrietta toddlers are no exception as outside play is one of their favorite activities! While outside, the toddlers are not only having fun, but working on their gross motor skills.  They are running, jumping, climbing, playing with balls, “mowing the lawn”, and pushing big trucks around.  Little legs and arms …

Reading is important any time of the year, but especially during summer when school is out of session for the older children!  After a busy morning of active games, cooking projects, outdoor challenges, water play, competitions and art projects, there is a time for the school-agers to engage in quiet activities, like reading, in the afternoon. Sometimes the school-agers have …

Infants love music and making noise! At the Canandaigua center, our infants have lots of fun making their own music with a variety of materials. The babies play music on pots and pans with wooden spoons and also use shakers for some added rhythm. As the music is playing, teachers talk about what is being heard, whether it is loud …

Celebrating milestones is one of the many fun things we do at Care-a-lot! Many children join Care-a-lot when they are only infants and it’s our great pleasure and privilege to watch them learn and grow through the years. One of the biggest milestones that we celebrate with families is graduation day! At the end of each school year, the Pre-K, …