This article has the as objective to verify concepts related to care and to educate, with nursery professionals. Some documents about children education were studied and some interviews and observations of the work were done with seven nursery professionals. The main focus were the activities related to care developed with children. Data were organized following the degrees: function of the nursery, education and care concepts. Data were submitted of quality analysis, allowing the confrontation between the theorical and empirical material. The results showed that official documents do not worry about the phase under discussion, letting inaccurate the relation between the activities of care and its educational role. This inexactness is noticed in the nursery professionals' speech. The activities of care are enclosed in child education, once in the vision of the professionals it has a corrective function. This aspect is justified by the lack of formation and by the fact of they entail this activity to their mothers' experience.
care; education; nursery