Welcome to our website! Our day care center is located on the ground floor of the start-up house of HTW Berlin. It offers space for up to 70 children at the age of 8 weeks up to school entry. "Education for Sustainable Development" and "Basic Scientific Experiences" are the pedagogical focal points of the daycare center at HTW Berlin.
Our educational activities are based on the Berlin Education Program ("Berliner Bildungsprogramm"). This enables us to offer a holistic education and to accompany and support the children in their development based on their strengths and abilities. We pay particular attention to the educational areas “Education for Sustainable Development” and “Basic Scientific Experiences”.
Experiences in early childhood lay the foundation for skills and values that determine how we handle ourselves, other people and the environment. Education for sustainable development supports the children’s self-efficacy and also respectful interactions with others. Its aim is to encourage children to think and act responsibly.
In our day care center, we offer the children the opportunity to deal with future related themes while playing, researching, and experimenting. The emphasis lies on the children’s spirit of discovery and playful exploration.
Time for experiments and our garden offer various possibilities to realize this. Our house is open for ideas, creativity and the children’s imagination. We take up these ideas and support the children with design spaces to explore and further shape their living environment in our community. Particular experiences in nature and their surroundings create special thrills. In our raised garden beds the children can sow and care for their own vegetables or flowers.
The day care center has large bright rooms and is divided into two areas: the day care area and the area for children from 3 - 6 years. The day care area has two groups of 15 children. Each group resides in two group rooms. Furthermore, the children can use a studio and a generous dining room, which is also used for common activities.
In the mixed-age area for children aged 3 - 6 years, we design the day care life in an open way. In order to enable the children to play intensively and without disturbance, we named and furnished the rooms according to their functions. Thus, we have a construction space, the dreamland as well as the "the dolls’ paradise", our role-play room. In this area, the children also have a studio and a dining room at their disposal.
Our outdoor area is located in quiet and natural surroundings and therefore a special play and explorative space for the children. Trees, hedges, natural corners, and structural elements such as our wooden ship or the nest swing encourage movement and common play.
Trips
The institution is attended by children who mostly live in different areas. It is therefore important for us to make them familiar with the surrounding area through little excursions. The children experience nature through the changing seasons and in different weather conditions. They learn to move with and in a group, to follow rules and thereby obtain social skills. Depending on what the current offers, we also go to theatres, the cinema and museums, to the nearby Tierpark, to the Wuhlheide park etc.
Festivals and Celebrations
In the course of a day care year, we have many opportunities to celebrate. Feasts are important to us because they offer us a break in our everyday routines, 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. Every year, we’re also looking forward to our annual summer festival and our lantern festival in autumn.
Sport and Exercise
Once a week we use the university gym. In addition to the fun of exercise and play, we give the children various opportunities to become aware of their physical strengths and to discover the social aspects of sport.
Playground
It is important to us that the children move a lot and find joy in it. We usually go outside on our playground every day and in almost every weather condition. There the children can romp, climb, swing, slide, dig, and explore nature as they please. A water main allows for summer water games.
Participation and Contribution
Our team has taken the rights of the children into consideration and is currently developing a pedagogical guideline in which they will further define and describe the concrete (co)decision rights of the children.
Alle unter einem Dach ("All Under One Roof")
Children from different cultures are coming and playing together in our day care center. The current project of the mixed-age area Alle unter einem Dach ("All Under One Roof") offers the opportunity to get to know the diversity of the children, their mother tongues, backgrounds, and lifestyles. The project begins with a common afternoon in which children, parents, and teachers present things such as games, photos, songs, and typical local dishes to each other. In addition to other activities, this also includes greeting each other in the morning circle in the various languages of the children, which brings intercultural learning into the everyday life of the day care center.
The daycare centre has been a partner daycare centre of the Berliner Volleyballverein Vorwärts e.V since November 2023. Vereine machen Kita is a partnership program between daycare centres and sports clubs that aim is to strengthen children's motor, personal, social and cognitive skills by offering additional exercise. Trainers from the club spend 4 hours a week in our daycare centre and work together with our pedagogues to increase the children's movement time in a playful, joyful and imaginative way. More information at Berliner Volleyballverein Vorwärts e.V..
Closing times 2023
27.12. - 29.12.
Closing times 2024
06.- 07.03.
10.05.
22.07. - 09.08.
19. - 20.09.
04.10.
23. - 31.12.
