Introduction/specifics

The Wimmelburg opened the doors in March 2013. In 2016, the facility expanded to include another group. The house is located at Hindenburgstraße 82 in Langenhagen and offers 24 children aged 3 months to 3 years a loving and holistic care. The Wimmelburg day care centre is open from Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and offers loving all-day care from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The facility is closed on public holidays and during closing times.

The Wimmelburg day care centre sees itself as a family-complementary institution. The focus is on ensuring that every child feels comfortable in the daycare center in an atmosphere of warmth and security. The experience of affection and trust is essential for the positive development of a child.

First of all, we would like to offer the children everything that gives them joy and fun and supports their development, so that they feel comfortable and like to come to our facility. Our pedagogical work is based entirely on the individual levels of experience and development of the children. To perceive the needs and interests of the individual child, to take him seriously with his weaknesses and strengths and to support and accompany his developmental tasks, are our most important tasks in everyday pedagogical life.

The focus is also on education and development towards ego competence and autonomy. By constantly trying out and experiencing daily tasks, such as dressing and undressing or smearing the breads themselves in food situations, we promote the children to independence. A regular daily routine with a constant rhythm and rituals gives the children security and security. It is important to us to create a safe environment that is oriented towards the needs of the children, as well as a loving and warm atmosphere in which the children feel comfortable. On this basis, the child can pursue his exploration behavior. This is an important prerequisite for the learning and development of the child. Social behavior and the ability to deal with conflicts are conveyed through the daily interaction in the group. Children learn from children, which is why our free play phase is an important element of our daily routine.

Last but not least, we want to promote children's language development through musical elements such as finger and movement games as well as picture books. Through regular activities with different materials, we want to offer the children a holistic sensory experience.

"First grasp, then understand"

Friedrich Fröbel

The children are supported according to the legal provisions of § 2KiTaG. The goals of our day care facility are therefore:

• Pick up children where they are
• To give children space to develop in their rhythm
• To strengthen children and to support and accompany them in their individual development
• To strengthen children in their personality
• Introducing children to socially responsible action
• To provide children with knowledge and skills that promote independent coping with life within the scope of the respective possibilities of the individual child
• Cultivate a thirst for knowledge and the joy of learning
• To promote equal rights for boys and girls educationally
• To promote interaction between children of different origins and imprints with each other

Rooms

The two group rooms on two levels are divided into different functional areas. The room on the ground floor offers the children the opportunity, among other things, to get involved in construction work on the construction carpet, to use the plateau for climbing and sliding or to play in the ball pool. Meals are also taken in this group room.

In the group room on the first floor, feelings and experiences can be lived out in role play in the doll and costume corner. The creativity and senses are also stimulated by different materials. The room also offers space for retreat and reading and is also used for the daily morning and midday groups.

Daily Schedule

07:00 am

From 07:00 a.m. the early service is offered for registered children. That means our first friends come and play with us. Together we start the day. When the first little hunger comes – there is a delicious fruit – vegetable plate, the first games of the day are cleared out, cuddle units are distributed, reading rounds are organized ... so everything your heart desires.

08:00 am – 09:00 am

Between 8:00-09:00 a.m. our Wimmelburg family becomes complete - then the rest of the children come. They arrive, cuddle up with mom and dad or show them how high they can already build a tower. After saying goodbye, we can continue to play until shortly before 9 o'clock the clean-up signal sounds - which means - we all clean up and immediately the morning circle begins.

09:00 am

At 9:00 a.m. the morning circle begins – Juchu! We greet each other, count whether everyone is there, singing, playing and laughing. And all this before breakfast – I'll tell you – you would like that too.

The table service – that's two different children every week – then goes downstairs and sets the table for everyone, picks up the food from the kitchen, counts the bibs and prepares everything for us. Then the time has come – when the table service tells us: "We are feeertig" – we go to our breakfast together.

We stock up on our own breads and decide on our own. Then we have to wait a short time - if the table neighbor just has the cereal pack until it's your turn.

09:45 am

After breakfast, our "open playing time" begins. We have many possibilities: free play inside & like outside in the garden, playground excursions, promotional offers, small group activities, project work and and and and ... Very often we set off with our little bus and explore our surroundings.

12:00 pm

Shortly before 12 we have to clean up again and we meet for lunch. While the table service is busy again, we oil our vocal cords again for our favorite songs or find out how many funny names each of our fingers has. TOGETHER we end an exciting morning and look forward to lunch.

Rituals are also important to us at lunchtime and so we start as always with the table saying. 

And just like breakfast, we are self-determined and can learn by trying things out. Recently there were peas.

12:30 p.m.

Afterwards we go to the "Sleeping room" at 12:30 pm for the rest and sleep phase. Each child has his or her own individual sleeping place in our cozy bedroom. Together we enjoy pleasant dreams and draw energy for the afternoon.

If someone can't sleep – something nice is hummed or cuddled for a while – usually falls asleep. But if this is not the case and someone simply cannot fall asleep, then the child is allowed to get up again and go to play. They have to be very quiet, but that's also clear – the other children are still sleeping.

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

When we all wake up again – start a new round of playing, laughing, having fun. We can nibble on the "tea time" that exists every day, look at our ego folders, paint, knead, go to the garden or do a puzzle in peace.

From 15:00 o'clock

The pick-up time begins. Depending on the times booked, the children will be picked up from 15:00-17:00.

Food

Backpack-free and vegetarian (without fish and meat) daycare center. 

Meals such as breakfast, lunch and tea time are taken at the daycare centre. The children do not need a backpack, because the kindergarten offers breakfast, lunch and tea time. All dishes are purely vegetarian and mostly in organic quality.  The children decide for themselves what and how much they eat!

Description and Stations

The Wimmelburg day care centre is located at Hindenburgstraße 82 in Langenhagen. The conveniently located premises are easily accessible by tram line 1 (stop Angerstraße or Kurt-Schumacher-Allee), by bus 122 (stop Kurt-Schumacher-Allee), by bike or car. The facility is located in a traffic-calmed zone (30 km/h) and has age-appropriate conditions.

Basics

The pedagogical work in the KITaZirkel e.V. is primarily based on the various educational areas. The areas are divided among the employees and everyone is an expert in this area and undergoes further training in the relevant areas.

Our educational areas are:

• music and rhythm
• creativity encounter with nature and things
• sensory perception
• movement and play
• language

Music and rhythm

Children of all ages need music, dance, expression and play! Rhythm combines these areas as a holistic educational offer in early childhood education. Even the smallest children dance and sing with elementary joie de vivre. The affinity and fascination emanating from music and dance are ultimately independent of culture, gender, age, intelligence and also of a person's deficits in perception or disabilities. Music is seen as a universal language, which small children, who are often not yet able to use the word language, use. In our day-to-day work, we keep finding:

Children are only too happy to be captivated and moved by music! Music, games and dance are not only important for children in terms of developmental psychology, but are also of great importance as a cultural building block. The identification with one's own culture and its typical children's songs is of importance for the self-image and for the integration that should not be underestimated. And remembering well-known children's songs, such as "Bunny in the Pit" or "Sleeping Beauty" creates a feeling of security in everyone. Songs and musical games create a sense of togetherness in any group or culture.

Creativity

What makes messing around with porridge or food creative is the driving force behind action: the children enjoy the sensual experience and become curious about the world. Toddlers don't just become creative, they are creative by themselves. You just have to let them do what they do and encourage them to do so. Children experiment, try out and find new and original possibilities - that is exactly what creative action is all about.

The children need an environment in which they feel comfortable and can affirm themselves without pressure to perform so that they can develop their imaginations to the full. Various materials encourage the children to deal with them and to explore them with all their senses. Children are not interested in visible things, but rather in exploring the materials. First of all, they are concerned with smearing, muddling, kneading, dabbing and splashing. Children are not result-oriented; they are concerned with the experience. Only later does something emerge that children also want to name. A big side effect of varied stimulation is that creative children have more self-confidence and less fear. These children are more lively and social, negotiating with others, listening, accepting other ways and appreciating their fellow players. They also have a greater power of concentration and find solutions faster.

Encounter with nature and things

With their thirst for knowledge, their striving to discover and experience new things, children have many experiences every day and reinvent their environment a bit every day. We would like to support our children in this area in pursuing their joy of discovery and experimenting with materials from nature and their environment.

Together with the educational staff, the children experience their direct environment and understand the natural conditions of our nature. This important educational process is supported by various offers. For example, the children learn about and appreciate the growth process of food by planting fruit trees or creating a raised vegetable bed. Our flower beds in the garden provide an important habitat for insects and reptiles and teach the children to protect even the smallest creatures in our ecosystems. Accompanying discussions of our observations and the documentation of what we have experienced is also an important part of the pedagogical work. The materials and results of our projects are then exhibited and appreciated for everyone in the group rooms. Through excursions we want to expand the children's spaces of perception, for example by visiting green areas, parks, the zoo or farms. Of course, shopping together in the supermarket can also be a reason to take the kids out. We also take an active part in road traffic and playfully learn about the various traffic regulations. Our offers and campaigns should not be about working out precise scientific explanations, but about experiencing and understanding phenomena from the children's immediate lives. The area of ​​encounters with nature and things offers a variety of different subject areas, although we always focus on the current needs of the children. Our goal is for the children to experience their environment with all their senses and in a variety of situations, so that they develop a relationship and an understanding of the world they live in.

Sensory perception

Our senses create the conditions for understanding, development and learning. The senses are divided into two areas, the far sense, which includes seeing and hearing, and the near sense, which includes all other senses. Tactile perception is one of an infant's first forms of communication and underscores the importance of stimulating and nurturing the senses. Children initially only understand their environment through their senses by smelling, tasting, feeling, seeing, hearing and moving. They want to run, jump, understand and discover the world. The game ideas and offers in the field of sensory perception range from tactile games and noise memories to barefoot paths and much more. In the snoezel rooms or cozy corners of the facilities, relaxation offers such as dream trips and touch games with various materials are also carried out. Basically, we always try to appeal to all senses in everyday life and to train together with the children.

Movement and play

Everything children learn, they learn through movement. The younger a child is, the more it is dependent on getting to know itself, others and its surroundings through perception and movement. Even infants explore their environment by reaching for objects and putting them in their mouths, touching them and dropping them. The child gains experience of material properties and thus grasps the first connections. With increasing age, physical and motor skills are added and combined. This is how a child crawls to stand and then run and hop. Exercise is good for you and has a positive effect on the development of your personality as a whole. It is, so to speak, the motor for body, soul and spirit. It strengthens the body and keeps it healthy. Children who can live out their natural urge to move find inner peace and balance, develop dexterity, creativity and an alert mind. Even the very youngest enjoy the attention and physical contact with adults during romping games. More lively movements, such as a sing-along, stimulate the imagination and support language development as the child can speak along with the text and thus learn to understand the meaning of the words. Our special offer in  Wichtelhagen, Wichtelbude and Krümelhausen day-care centers is the weekly yoga class.

Speech and language development 

With the help of various communication options - whether verbal or non-verbal - children can communicate, make themselves understood and get in touch with their environment. Thus, language and communication with each other is not only the oldest, but also one of the most important human cultural techniques. We see our educational mission in this area essentially as supporting and supporting the children according to their individual requirements in a resource-oriented and everyday-integrated manner. In the city of Langenhagen, the regional concept serves as a starting point for quality assurance and quality development and describes goals and methods. It is continuously updated. In coordination with the carriers, the sample text can be used as a reference (and protection in the case of an examination by the state):

The city of Langenhagen has developed its regional language education and language promotion concept for the qualification of pedagogical specialists in day-care centers in coordination with all providers. The structure of the content and the structure of this concept take into account the latest findings from science and practice. They correspond to the recommendations for action "Language education and language support" of the Lower Saxony orientation and education plan. The regional language education and language promotion concept of the city of Langenhagen is trend-setting for all daycare centers in Langenhagen and is regularly updated. In addition to the everyday integrated language education and support, the children are offered targeted support in language acquisition (§ 18 KiTaG) in the last year before school. The language level survey, which is carried out at least 1 ½ years before starting school, serves to determine the current level of each individual child.

Through the spatial concept of the day care center (e.g. reading corner or role play area) as well as activities and offers (rituals such as songs, themed stories, finger plays, rhymes, everyday situations, etc.), the educational staff encourages the children to communicate with the environment within the scope of their possibilities.

Additional Offerings

Healthy nutrition in the KITaZirkel e.V.

Many learning and experience processes happen automatically during meals. All of our facilities are 'backpack free' which means all meals such as breakfast, lunch and tea time are provided by the daycare. We attach great importance to healthy, wholesome and balanced nutrition. It goes without saying that we only offer organic food to ensure an optimal supply of vitamins and minerals. In addition to a colorful range of fruit and vegetables, our menu consists of high-quality whole grain products, dairy products and eggs. In order to integrate enough variety into our menu, these are regularly reflected on and revised. Of course, we also take into account whether the children will accept the food and replace it with alternatives if necessary. Since August 1st, 2021, all of the association’s day-care centers have switched to an ovo-lacto-vegetarian diet (free of fish and meat). This decision is not only related to the health benefits such as a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and type II diabetes, but also to environmental protection and ethical reasons.

The KITaZirkel e.V. would like to do our part for environmental protection and set an example by not eating meat and fish in the daycare center. The ecological footprint of animal products is very large compared to other foods. In addition, global consumption is expected to continue to increase. Thus, the production (according to the IPCC Special Report 2019) contributes significantly to climate change and generates significantly more greenhouse gases than the production of plant-based foods. The same also applies to water and land consumption, which are also significantly higher. In addition, we want to protect the animals through our actions and leave the cycle of factory farming. We do not want to impose a certain diet on other people, we just want to draw attention to the animal suffering that is currently taking place and encourage people to place more value on high-quality food. In our nutrition concept, we always refer to the recommendations of the "German Society for Nutrition" (DGE). In addition to the health aspects already mentioned, we of course also pay attention to the children's sugar and salt consumption, in order to adjust the taste to natural ingredients right from the start.

Of course, we would like to work professionally on this topic, to develop further and to continuously optimize the offer. For this important process, we got the support of a nutritionist who is specially trained in the right nutrition for children.

Our food culture

• Create an inviting center on the table 
• Napkins
• Fruit and vegetables are available all the time
• Food and drink is designed and served in an appealing and inviting way
• Child-friendly bowls and jugs from which the children can help themselves
• Eating takes place in a quiet and relaxed environment
• We are considerate of each other, hand each other bowls and use the time for conversations

The role of the employees

• Beginning together through rituals at lunch
• The ped. Specialists sit next to the children at the table and eat with them
• Leftovers on the plate are accepted
• There is no dessert deprivation as punishment
• "No" is accepted
• Sufficient staffing to provide assistance if necessary
• Discussions at mealtimes with the children and among the children are welcome! e.g. by naming the food, drinks and actions
• Give children time, trust and understanding

Quality Assurance

The capacity utilization of the facility depends primarily on the quality of the pedagogical work. The work in a day-care center must be carried out according to the generally recognized scientific knowledge of pedagogy and the quality must be checked regularly. Documentation and evaluation are instruments of quality assurance. The work is continuously evaluated and the concept is further developed. In addition, the high quality of the pedagogical facility is ensured through constant case discussions, individual and team discussions, supervision, further training, qualified preparation and dealing with specialist literature. The qualification and personality of the specialist staff is important in order to be able to competently support children in their development and parents in their educational tasks. In addition, the pedagogical team regularly qualifies in the overarching working groups on the following topics:

• Language education / language promotion 
• Child protection 
• Inclusion/ Intercultural Competence 
• Supervision / case processing 
• Parent work 
• Pedagogy

Teamwork with parents

The association KITaZirkel e.V. is characterized by the active cooperation of the parents. The parents are very important because this club life can only function with their cooperation. Every family is unique. It is of great importance to the child.

Working with parents plays an important role in our association. The basis for positive work with parents for the benefit of the child is trust, openness, honesty and the feeling that parents are in good hands with us. A positive cooperation and a regular exchange are very important to us. It is the basis for a constructive and cooperative upbringing of the child.

We see ourselves as a family-enhancing facility. Parents and professionals should be partners with regard to the child. For us, the focus is on child-oriented cooperation and mutual constructive influence. In order to create a trusting atmosphere in which mutual support is possible, we would like parents to participate regularly in the activities we offer. The work with parents in the day-care centers includes, among other things: the following:

• Parent evenings – parent information evenings 
• Parents meeting – thematic exchange 
• Parent-child afternoons 
• Spontaneous conversations 
• Parent talks with educational staff 
• Events/ joint celebrations

Projects

One focus of the pedagogical activity in our institutions is the project work. This includes both spontaneous and long-term planned projects that are oriented towards the needs and interests of the children. The pedagogical team develops the pedagogical concept and implements it in everyday practice.