Approximately 180 children between the 0 to six years attend our day care center. They each have different origins, diverse cultural backgrounds, and of course different abilities, skills, characters, and needs.
It is important to us to value each child’s personality and to support them in their individual needs and stages of development.
Our day care center is located in green surroundings (Domäne Dahlem, Schwarze Grund and Grunewald are close by) and has a very large and diverse garden space.
Our facility is easily accessible with public transport: The X83 bus line stops directly at the daycare centre, while the stops for bus lines 115 and X10 as well as the Dahlem Dorf underground station are just a few minutes' walk away.
The toddler area of our centre is located on the ground floor and comprises three toddler areas, each of which is usually attended by around 20 children aged 0 to around 3 years. There are two mixed-age, open-group elementary areas on the middle and upper floors, which offer space for a total of around 60 children aged from around 2.5 years until they start school.
In order to meet the different needs of the children, we have designed various functional areas in which they have the opportunity to rest and relax, to move, to be creative and to play (roles).
These areas are divided into functional rooms and functional corners. The varied room structure gives the children the opportunity to choose between different activities: They can use larger play areas such as the movement room for romping 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 can be visited by all children from 4 years on. The curiosity of the children is aroused by the design of the rooms and a wide range of materials. They are challenged to try out something new and perhaps unusual, to research and to find answers to their questions. Our learning workshop works according to the principle of “discovering learning”.
The large, versatile outdoor area invites the children to play, climb, rock, balance, slide, splash around and be creative.
"Haus der kleinen Forscher" (House of Little Explorers)
Our day care center is one of 50 pilot facilities that was already certified as "Haus der kleinen Forscher" (House of Little Explorers) in 2006. The foundation of the same name supports the development of young children in the fields of mathematics, science, and technology. It provides pedagogues with the respective qualifications and has become the largest early education initiative in Germany.
As a Haus der kleinen Forscher, we offer children the opportunity to try out, learn and explore with the help of various specially designed projects. This movie about a sustainability project in our rooms is a good example for the success of our projects.
Participation and Contribution
In our day care center the children have the possibility to help shape their day care life according to their respective ages. We take the children seriously, trust them and take their fears, feelings, and interests into consideration. We give them a wide range of possibilities to express their own ideas, respect the opinions of others and to find solutions. This way, they are able to make their first basic democratic experiences. Once a week, we hold a children’s conference with the four- to six-year-old children. Within this little conference, we plan projects and actions and also develop rules for living and playing together. Our team has been intensively involved with the rights of children and is currently developing a pedagogical guideline in which they will further define the concrete (co)decision rights of the children.
Forest Groups
Our forest groups set out once a week to explore the Grunewald forest, the Domäne Dahlem, and the Schwarze Grund park, all of which are close to our facilities. Our “Waldkinder” (forest children) explore their environment as a natural habitat for plants, animals and people, experience the changing of the seasons and observe the cycles in nature. With the help of these experiences, they develop an understanding of the environment and respect for other living beings.
We put an emphasis on a wide range of experiences that challenge the children to become active and equip them with encouraging materials. In addition to free play, there are projects and activities within the various educational areas of the Berlin Education Program ("Berliner Bildungsprogramm" ). It is important to us to answer the children's questions in a variety of ways and also to encourage them to gain “knowledge” through their own actions and experiments.
Bambini Run
Once a year, our older children take part in the annual run at the Tiergarten, which is organized by Berliner Wasserbetriebe. It is a great community experience for them to run about 800 metres through the Tiergarten with other children. Of course, we prepare ourselves for this challenge together with a special “runner’s training”.
Travel
Biesenbrow is about 120 km northeast of Berlin, a place that some of the day care children have chosen as their favorite place. The annual day care trip gives them the opportunity to discover nature and the place for themselves. Here, they can run around and be close to animals (sheeps, donkeys, chickens, dogs, and cats). They also help prepare this annual trip as they have the opportunity to participate in a day trip there and observe the place. The children usually return with many impressions that help them to plan their longer trip.
Festivals and Celebrations
In the course of the year, we have many opportunities to celebrate. These feasts are important to us, give us a break from everyday life, are fun and leave us with beautiful memories. For our preschool children there is an annual children's festival in the "Freiraum" - the event hall of the culture department of studierendenWERK.
Closing times 2025
03. - 07.03.
02.05.
09.05.
30.05.
04. - 15.08.
17.09. (staff meeting)
02.10.
22. - 31.12.
