Fall Creek School Age Program

Fall Creek School-Age Program (FCSAP) provides quality childcare for 70 children enrolled in grades K-5 at the program's site, Fall Creek Elementary School in Ithaca, NY.

Our mission is to provide a warm, relaxed, semi-structured environment, with attention to each child's well-being.  Planning for activities and staffing is based on the individual interests and needs of the children, and their cultural diversity. Offerings are designed to provide stimulating choices that are exciting, and interesting, build skills and promote self-reliance and self-confidence.

Our goal is to provide recreation, choices for their leisure time, and a safe and peaceful environment.  Children are encouraged to grow emotionally, physically, cognitively, and socially.

Our philosophy models the values of Safety, Honesty, Acceptance, Respect, and Kindness. (SHARK) 

Emotionally: We provide a relaxed and nurturing environment that helps the children transition into and out of their school day.  They feel safe and secure with staff that listens to them and genuinely likes to play and interact with them. 

Physically: We offer daily outdoor play and organized gym activities to encourage kids to get exercise, practice teamwork, and good sportsmanship, and let their energy out! 

Cognitively: Activities are designed to foster self-confidence when working with various art media, crafts materials, and creating science experiments.  Areas are designated for dramatic play, blocks, table games, and other manipulative materials. We have a Homework Club which takes place Monday-Thursday from 2:15-5:00 PM in the library. Parents/guardians can sign their child(ren) up to receive homework help on a daily basis. This club is supported by volunteer tutors from Ithaca College and Cornell University.

Socially: The children have opportunities to play and work with children in their own age group, as well as children of other ages.  Older children can model behavior, skills, and learning processes for younger children.  Younger children provide older children with an opportunity to share what they have learned and to develop a sense of caring. We emphasize mutual cooperation, consideration of others, and peaceful coexistence. We encourage children to use their words to express their feelings and ask staff for help when they need support.

Activities: Our program offers both structured and non-structured activities.  We have daily access to the school library, gymnasium, kitchen, cafeteria, and playgrounds.  We offer arts and crafts daily, and specialty interest activities depending on our staff’s diverse talents. Some past offerings have been cooking, sign language, Spanish, archery, photography, fishing, and community service. There are organized gym activities for each age group and time designated for daily use of our playgrounds.  We have a variety of board games, books, manipulative materials, quiet activities, and daily story time.  

Snacks: A snack is provided at FCSAP, as well as morning and afternoon snacks during our full day programming. We offer a fruit or vegetable every day, and provide natural and organic ingredients whenever possible.