Introduction

In our daycare center and family center, up to 105 children can be accommodated in 5 groups. In 4 kindergarten groups, children aged between 3 and 6 years are cared for in a maximum group size of 20 or 23 children, and the nursery group is available for 10 children aged between 10 months and 3 years. Our daycare center operates according to a partially open concept. We have 4 functional rooms, which also serve as group rooms. The children are assigned to a fixed group with 2 educators each. The groups meet daily at 9:00 for relationship time, where they talk about the morning, sing songs, read books, or play circle games. In the morning and afternoon, the children have free access to various functional rooms, the outdoor area, and the gym and sensory room.

Our daycare center is a place of encounter. Our goal is to empower children from various social and cultural backgrounds to act appropriately, compassionately, and self-determinedly in current and future life situations, as well as to tolerate and accept themselves and others. Each child should be accepted and fostered in their entirety. The primary focus of our work with children is for them to feel comfortable and experience joy. Encouraging independent activity, fostering community with other children, and integrating into structured routines should contribute to this. Our work includes various areas such as social learning, nature and environmental experiences, movement, and health.

As a family center, we have various offerings for the children as well as for you as parents or for the whole family. Once a month, we have Caritas here for free parenting advice and offer courses for musical early education in cooperation with the music school.

Rooms

In the preschool area (3-6 years old), we work according to a semi-open concept with 6 different functional rooms. The functional rooms provide children with a variety of play opportunities. The following equipment is available: Cafeteria and research room: chairs and tables with a sideboard for the buffet, research area with a large reflexive cabinet, shelves with magnets and experiment trays, magnifying glasses, microscopes, opportunities for water experiments, and a large light table. Board game and puzzle room: tables and chairs, shelves sorted by puzzles and board games. Creative room: chairs and tables, easels, various materials such as glue, all kinds of pens, paper, cardboard, feathers, beads, punches, and much more exciting stuff. Role-play room: playhouse with a complete kitchen setup, doll accessories and sofa, a dress-up corner with a large mirror cabinet, stage area for small performances and theater rehearsals.

Workspace: Workbench, various construction corners fitted with carpets for wooden building block creations, LEGO, magnetic building blocks) Construction materials such as cardboard, cardboard boxes, wood, and egg cartons.The nursery area has a spacious group room with an adjacent sleeping area as well as a separate cloakroom with a changing area. Through the cloakroom, one accesses the washroom with extra small toilets, low sinks, and a shower. In the group room, children have the opportunity to slide and climb at different levels, a role-playing corner, a large cuddle carpet that is great for roughhousing, books for viewing and reading, a large mirror, and small tables with chairs.A generous hallway connects the daycare and nursery area. There, we offer our children small retreat options, ride-on horses, and a children’s meeting corner. For all visitors, there is an information stand as well as a seating area for chatting.

Outdoor Facilities

For the children, the time spent in the outdoor area is particularly important, as they can move around extensively here. Different movement incentives are provided by our treehouse with a large slide, a climbing pyramid, a swing rope, and the large sand area with various sand toys. Various vehicles such as Bobby Cars, balance bikes, tricycles, or scooters are waiting in the playhouse for their use and are very popular among the children. A small football goal invites them to play football.

There are seating areas distributed across the grounds for relaxing and spending time or for smaller creative activities. A water drinking station on the terrace is frequented not only on hotter days.

For our nursery children, we have a separate outdoor area at the back of the extensive property. The younger children need even more protection and security during their explorations.

A slide, a playhouse, and a sailboat provide the necessary fun in the sand area. Our youngest ones also have the opportunity to ride around with Bobby Cars, tricycles, and balance bikes, or to play with sand toys in the spacious sand area. Our youngest ones also have the opportunity to ride around with Bobby Cars, tricycles, and balance bikes, or to play with sand toys in the spacious sand area.

Daily Schedule

Our KiFaZ opens at 7:30 AM and welcomes all children in the early group until 8:00 AM.At 8:00 AM, all other groups open and the children go to their home group.From 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM, all children have the opportunity to have their packed breakfast in our cafeteria. The breakfast tables are already set with small water, milk, and tea pots. A little flower on a placemat in the center of the tables is of course a must for coziness.

Around 9:00 AM, the morning circle takes place in the groups. There, song introductions, discussions, picture book readings, and much more are carried out. Afterwards, all functional rooms are open for free play for the children. During free play, targeted offerings like creative work, experiments, gymnastics, and similar educational offerings are integrated. We also love to use our spacious outdoor area with various opportunities for movement.

Lunch begins at 12:00. Each child is free to decide when they want to go for lunch; however, children who are going to sleep are advised to eat in the first round so that they can lie down to sleep peacefully afterwards. Children who are picked up earlier also eat a bit earlier. All other children can continue to play in the meantime.Children who go for their midday rest are accompanied by a staff member. The movement room is transformed into a sleeping and resting area during the quiet period. Each child receives their individual sleeping place. Children who do not wish to sleep can decide in the afternoon which functional room they would like to play in or can also choose to be active outside.Around 14:30, a snack is offered for the children. Usually, there are options like fruit or vegetable sticks. From 15:00 onwards, the nursery children join the kindergarten area. This helps them get to know the surroundings, making the adjustment easier. The KiFaZ closes at 16:30.

Food

Since we care deeply about the nutrition of the children and value a wide variety, we plan to offer a healthy breakfast twice a month on Thursdays. For this, the children will go shopping with the educators at the Giessen weekly market on Wednesdays and prepare the breakfast together the next day. On the remaining weekdays, the children will bring their breakfast from home and can have it in the cafeteria from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM.

The lunch is provided by 'Tischlein-deck-dich' - healthy lunchtime - from the company Zaug. In advance, we will receive the meal plans for the upcoming weeks from Zaug via email. The children are allowed to co-decide and choose 2 out of 3 menus, which will then be ordered accordingly. The meal plans are available in the KiKom app as well as displayed in the KiFaZ. We try to order the food as varied as possible and also take into account cultural or allergy-related diets.

The children can have lunch in our cafeteria from 12:00 to 1:30 PM. Our cafeteria has space for up to 16 children. Usually, the children have two different dishes to choose from, and we generally ensure that there is either a meat/fish option and a vegetarian dish available.

The toddlers eat together in their group. They have breakfast daily at 8:30 AM. Twice a month, a communal breakfast is also planned on Thursdays, which is served in the group at 8:30 AM. The toddlers have lunch at 11:15 AM.

Additional Offerings

Waldgruppe

Unser Waldtag ermöglicht Kindern intensive Naturerlebnisse. Er bietet viel Raum für die Bewegungs- und Entdeckungsfreude der Kinder. Das Waldprojekt findet für Kinder von dreieinhalb bis sechs Jahren in einer Gruppe von 12 bis 16 Kindern 2x im Monat (zurzeit donnerstags von 08:00 - 12:00 Uhr) statt.
Uns ist es wichtig, das Interesse der Kinder für die Umwelt und Natur zu wecken, sammeln und zu vertiefen.
Unsere Sinnesorgane können viele Reize aufnehmen, doch ihnen sind natürliche Grenzen gesetzt. Stellen wir einmal die hektische technisierte Welt der natürlichen Ruhe des Waldes gegenüber so werden wir feststellen, dass heute viele Menschen nicht mehr in der Lage sind, Ruhe zu empfinden oder sogar auszuhalten.

Gerade Stadtkinder werden verstärkt von der Natur entfremdet und gehen dementsprechend mit ihr um. Aus diesem Grund erforschen, entdecken und erleben wir mit den Kindern den Wald mit ihren Sinnen (tasten, riechen, hören und fühlen). Außerdem wird durch das Spielen im Wald die Kreativität und Fantasie angeregt, da kein vorgefertigtes Spielzeug zur Verfügung steht. Das Sozialverhalten sowie der Gemeinschaftssinn werden durch die veränderte Umgebung, bzw. neue Verhaltensweisen und Kooperationen untereinander herausgefordert. Dieses zeigt sich zum Beispiel beim Waldsofa bauen, bei dem Absprachen erforderlich sind. Das Waldsofa wird aus vielen großen und kleinen Stöcken die aufgeschichtet und ineinander verkantet werden, gebaut. Zudem muss es so groß sein, dass alle Kinder darauf sitzen können.

In diesem Sinne gehen wir mit den Kindern, mit offenen Augen und ein wenig Ruhe, die verborgenen Schätze des Waldes entdecken.

Quality Assurance

Die pädagogische Arbeit in unserer Kindertagesstätte richtet sich nach dem Bildungsplan des Landes Hessen. Eine intensivere und ineinander greifende Zusammenarbeit mit Schule und Elternhaus ist von großer Bedeutung.
Um eine stetige Anpassung an neue Bedingungen, Weiterentwicklung, Sicherung und Steuerung der pädagogischen Qualität der Arbeit im Rahmen einer festgelegten und überprüfbaren Struktur-, Prozess- und Ergebnisqualität sicherstellen zu können, befinden wir uns aktuell gemeinsam mit allen städtischen Einrichtungen in dem Prozess eines Qualitätsmanagementsystems.

Cooperations

As part of the family center and in order to ensure the educational, educational, and care mandate for the well-being of the children and to support their development holistically, collaboration with specialized services and other institutions is important. All parties involved benefit from different competencies, e.g., in the therapy area, for further development, assistance with specific issues, and training.We collaborate with various institutions, some of which are mentioned here as important:

- Educational counseling center

- School/Music school

- Kindergartens

- Sponsorship dentist

- Youth welfare office

- Early intervention

- Daycare mothers

- local associations

In the context of our cooperation with daycare mothers, we offer to take in children at our facility. The daycare mothers, with a cooperation contract, visit our facility at regular intervals.

Basics

Wir arbeiten nach dem hessichen Bildungs- und Erziehungsplan und nach den Trägergrundsätzen der Stadt Gießen.

http://ikiss.giessen.local/media/custom/1894_1868_1.PDF?1410954183

Wir wollen mit unserer pädagogischen Arbeit den Kindergarten zu einem Ort machen, den Kinder gerne besuchen und an den sie sich mit Freude zurückerinnern. Kinder brauchen Erwachsene, die den kindlichen Entwicklungskräften vertrauen und im notwendigen Maß Anregung und Anleitung geben. Wir schaffen den Kindern Raum, geben ihnen Zeit und die Möglichkeit, ihre Persönlichkeit zu entwickeln.

Jedes Kind hat das Recht zu lachen, zu spielen, zu träumen, zu weinen anderer Ansicht zu sein, vorwärts zu kommen, um sich zu verwirklichen.

Employee

In der Kindertagesstätte und dem Familienzentrum Am Eichelbaum begleiten und fördern zurzeit 15 pädagogische Fachkräfte, die Kinder in ihrer individuellen Entwicklung. Weiterhin sind in unserer Einrichtung 2 Alltagsunterstützende Kräfte beschäftigt.
Wir legen großen Wert auf eine gute Zusammenarbeit. Sehr wichtig ist uns dabei der partnerschaftliche und ehrliche Umgang miteinander, auch bei der Klärung von Konflikten.
Kinder brauchen Sicherheit, stabile Beziehungen und eine geordnete Umgebung damit sie sich gut entwickeln können. Daher verstehen wir uns auch als Entwicklungsbegleiterinnen. Die Transparenz unserer Arbeit und der ständige Dialog mit Ihnen als Eltern ist uns besonders wichtig. Wir begleiten und unterstützen Ihr Kind durch eine intensive Beobachtung und altersgemäß ausgerichtete pädagogische Angebote.
Alle Mitarbeiter nehmen regelmäßig an Fort – und Weiterbildungen teil. Jeden letzten Freitag im Monat bleibt unsere Einrichtung nachmittags geschlossen. Diese Zeit nutzen wir um Fachthemen zu erarbeiten und Informationen auszutauschen. Durch diese intensive Zusammenarbeit wollen wir erreichen, die Fähigkeiten und Stärken jeder einzelnen Erzieherin zu nutzen, um vielseitige Ideen und Impulse in unsere pädagogische Arbeit einfließen zu lassen, damit wir den Kindern immer wieder neue Lernprozesse ermöglichen können.

Teamwork with school

Die Zusammenarbeit mit den beiden Grundschulen hier in Wieseck (Weiße Schule/ Käthe-Kollwitz-Schule) ist uns besonders wichtig um den Kindern einen guten Übergang in die Schule zu gestalten. Da die Weiße Schule räumlich näher an uns ist und der Großteil unserer Kinder auf diese Schule wechselt, ist die Zusammenarbeit hier noch intensiver. Regelmäßig finden Treffen statt, an denen neue Projekte zum Übergang besprochen werden.

Teamwork with parents

A trusting collaboration is an important prerequisite for optimal and individual support for the well-being of the child. We understand the collaboration with parents as a joint task in the spirit of a partnership in education. In our facility, parent work encompasses all activities that the kindergarten team offers to the families of the children in their care. These activities are complementary elements of pedagogical work within the framework of the care, education, and upbringing of the children. The foundation for these activities is a constructive, partnership-based, and dialogical collaboration between parents and educators.

Additionally, we value a constant flow of information. All parent letters and information are made available online to parents through the KiKom app. Furthermore, there are information boards immediately at the entrance on each side. The right one serves the flow of information from the kindergarten team to the parents (e.g., notices, family center, preschool group). The left one contains information from parents for parents, information from the parents' council, current events, and so on. Toys, clothing, and other items that are left unnamed in the kindergarten are also located there.

Holiday Care

Our Daycare center is closed for three weeks during the Hessian school holidays on a yearly rotating basis. This means that in one year, we are closed for the first three weeks of the Hessian summer holidays, and in the following year, for the last three weeks. During this summer closure period, there is the option to use care at another daycare center. Our partner daycare center is the KiFaZ "Gießener Straße". The holiday care for our children primarily takes place in this facility.

The care during the holidays is free of charge for the children. Only the lunch, which costs 3.10 euros per individual meal, must be paid.

On two days a year, we also dedicate ourselves to the further development of our educational work and/or participate in joint team training sessions. On these days, the facility remains closed for both children and parents as well. The closing times will, as far as possible, be communicated at the beginning of the kindergarten year.

Description and Stations

The daycare center Am Eichelbaum is located on a corner lot between the following streets: Weidigstrasse/Johannesberg and Am Eichelbaum.

You can reach us via:

Bus line 5 towards the station:

Get off at the Weidigstrasse stop. From there, walk up the Weidigstrasse (it goes slightly uphill) until the next intersection. You will see our daycare center on your right.

Bus line 5 towards Wieseck:

Get off at the Albert-Oßwald-Platz stop. From there, cross at the pedestrian crossing, walk along Lichtenauer Strasse until the next street on the right, which is Weidigstrasse. At the next intersection, you will see our daycare center on your right.

By car:

From Marburgerstrasse, turn into Weidigstrasse and then take the 3rd cross street on the right (Am Eichelbaum) to find our daycare center.