Up to 180 children aged around two months until they start school attend our daycare center. They come from different origins, belong to different cultures and have different abilities, skills, characteristics and needs.
It is important to us to value every child's personality and to support and support them according to their individual needs and level of development.
Our daycare center is located in a natural environment (the Dahlem domain, the Schwarzen Grund, and the Grunewald are in the immediate vicinity) and has a very large, diverse garden.
Our facility is easy to reach by public transport: the X83 buses stop at the daycare center, and the bus lines 115 and X10 stops and the Dahlem Dorf underground station are also within walking distance.
Like all daycare centers in Berlin, we work on the basis of the Berlin Education Program (BBP). We place our pedagogical focus on the education sector "Health". According to the WHO's Ottawa Charter, health, as we understand it, includes physical, mental and social well-being: “A child who feels comfortable in his body and who feels accepted, respected and valued in his family and in the daycare center will respond to the many suggestions and meet the challenges of one’s environment with curiosity, inquisitiveness and a desire to explore.”
This salutogenic understanding of health is the basis of our educational activities:
- We prepare breakfast and the afternoon snack together with the children. We pay attention to a balanced, healthy diet. Drinks and a fruit and vegetable plate are available to the children at any time.
- The crèche children have the opportunity to take their afternoon nap in the stroller on the terrace in the fresh air.
- We go into the garden or explore the surrounding area regularly and in almost all weathers.
- All areas of our daycare center have well-equipped exercise rooms that give the children a variety of incentives and opportunities for exercise experiences.
- Once a week the kindergarten children go to the large FU gymnasium.
“Children’s Research” award
With the help of those operating throughout Germany Children's Research Foundation Children should be given the opportunity to encounter mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology (MINT) as well as issues of sustainability in as many daycare centers and primary schools as possible. The pedagogical specialists at the daycare center at the FU have taken part in various training courses on the subject of MINT and have carried out project-related offers with children, which will continue to be permanently implemented in everyday pedagogical life.
Because of this, our daycare center at the FU received the “Children’s Research” award.
Kita with bite
The success speaks for itself. In 2023 we will have the quality seal for daycare centers “Kita with bite” (Nutrition and education program to create an everyday daycare routine that promotes oral health).
The crèche area is located on the ground floor and is divided into three groups, which are usually attended by around 20 children between the ages of two months and around 2,5 years. The two mixed-age, group-open areas on the middle and upper floors each have space for an average of 60 children aged around two years until they start school.
In order to meet the different needs of children, we have created various areas in which they have the opportunity to rest and relax, exercise, be creative and (role) play.
These areas are divided into functional rooms or functional corners. The diverse room structure gives the children the opportunity to choose between different offers: They can use larger play areas, such as the movement room for running around or the construction room for large-scale building, or they can also pursue quiet or creative activities (looking at books, painting).
Our well-equipped learning workshop is open to all children aged 4 or older. The design of the rooms and a wide range of materials awaken the children's curiosity. They are challenged to try something new and perhaps unusual, to research and find answers to their questions. Our learning workshop works according to the principle of “discovery learning”.
The large, versatile outdoor area invites children to run around, climb, swing, see-saw, balance, slide, muddy and create.
"House of the Little Researchers"
The daycare center at the FU is one of 50 pilot facilities that was certified as a “House of Little Researchers” in 2006. The nonprofit of the same name Foundation is committed to supporting children of daycare and primary school age in the areas of mathematics, natural sciences and technology. It qualifies educators and is now the largest early education initiative in Germany.
As the "House of Little Researchers", we offer children the opportunity to try out, learn and research with numerous projects. The film that the foundation made in our daycare center on the topic of sustainability tells of a successful example.
Participation and involvement
In our daycare, the children are allowed to help shape their everyday lives in the daycare center according to their age. We take the children seriously, have confidence in them and take their fears, feelings and interests into consideration. We provide you with a broad field of practice in which to express your own ideas, respect the opinions of others and present solutions. This is how they gain their first basic democratic experiences. We meet once a week with the four to six year old children Children's conference. In this committee we plan, among other things, projects and activities or develop rules for daily living together. Our team has dealt intensively with children's rights and is developing a pedagogical orientation basis in which the children's concrete decision-making rights for our everyday life will be described.
Forest groups
Our forest groups set out once a week to explore the Grunewald, the Dahlem Domain, the Botanical Garden or the Schwarzer Grund, all of which are in the immediate vicinity of our facility. Our “forest children” explore nature as a habitat for plants, animals and people, experience the change of seasons and observe natural cycles. These insights and experiences create an understanding of the environment and respect for other living beings.
We value a wide range of experience spaces that challenge children to take their own initiative and are equipped with stimulating materials. In addition to the free play, there are projects and activities in the various educational areas of the Berlin education program. It is important to us to answer children's questions in a variety of ways and to encourage them to gain “discovery” through their own actions and experiments.
“Journey into the world of things”
As part of the project “Journey into the world of things, playing and experimenting with everyday objects” for two to three year old children, everyday toys were put aside. Instead, people tinkered and tinkered with brushes, sieves, bicycle rims and all sorts of technical devices from everyday adult life. The items were disassembled and reassembled. In close collaboration with the artist Anat Manor, the project was completed with an impressive exhibition.
Bambini run
Once a year our older children take part in the run in the zoo, which is organized by the Berliner Wasserbetriebe. It is a great community experience for them to run around 800 meters through the zoo with other children. Of course, we prepare for this challenge together with “running training”.
Daycare trip
120 km northeast of Berlin is Biesenbrow, a place that some of the children at the daycare have chosen as a favorite place. The annual daycare trip offers them the opportunity to discover nature and the place for themselves. Here you can romp around and experience animals (sheep, donkeys, chickens, dogs and cats) up close. The daycare trips are prepared with the participation of the children. In advance, you have the opportunity to take a day trip to the place and take a closer look at the hustle and bustle there. As a rule, they return with many impressions that are incorporated into the travel planning.
Festivals and Celebrations
Over the course of a year, we have many opportunities to celebrate. They are important to us, break up everyday life, are fun and leave behind beautiful memories. There is one every year for our preschool children Kinderfest in the "Freiraum" - the event hall of the cultural area studierendenWERKs - instead.
Closing times 2024
04. - 07.03.
02. - 05.04.
10.05.
05.08. - 16.08.
20.09.
04.10.
23. - 31.12.
