Introduction/specifics

BUNTE ARCHE - grow up well with animals!

“Welcome to our house: polar bear, zebra, bee, giraffe and mouse.”

The Bunte Arche is a community facility run by the Katholische Jugendfürsorge München und Freising e.V. (Catholic Youth Welfare Munich and Freising).

In a total of 3 groups, we have space for 49 children aged 9 weeks to school age in one kindergarten and two crèche groups. As the number of children and the size of the groups at our facility can be described as family-like, we are able to offer very individual care.

Our KiTa is located slightly away from the center of Putzbrunn, in the forest colony in idyllic surroundings.

In our close-to-life and family-oriented daycare center, we live a partially open concept with a reggio-oriented approach, which gives the children freedom and space for their individual development. 

Our location near the forest allows the children to experience nature and to fulfill their urge to move.

We are also characterized by the continuous development of our concept and our attitude towards diversity. We live this with our international team and the care of children from different countries of origin. We embrace cultural diversity, which helps to promote understanding and acceptance of differences.

Our close cooperation and the trust of parents, which are created through a high level of transparency in our daily work and a shared culture of celebrations and festivities, are just as important to us.

Rooms

The eye-catcher is our large piazza, which welcomes all guests in a bright and inviting way. The children “check in” at the counter in the morning. The parents' corner also serves as a reading corner for the children and there is a fantastic view of the large garden. In the piazza, there is a large construction site and a role-play area where all the children can play together. 

Age-appropriate group rooms are available for the children. There is also a relaxation room, a studio and a doll's kitchen in the canteen.

There are plenty of opportunities to retreat and play everywhere, which are constantly being changed according to the children's interests.

The Salberghaus gymnasium is also regularly used for longer exercise sessions.

Outdoor Facilities

In our garden, we offer the children plenty of space for a variety of activities to discover, explore and move around. The large climbing frame with slide, the watercourse and the large sandpit are particularly fun.

Other adventure areas in the outdoor area:

Barefoot path
Mud kitchen
Climbing trees
Willow fences to hide behind
Paved paths for driving vehicles
Building blocks for creative building

Daily Schedule

The drop-off time starts at 07.30 am. All families are welcomed by a colleague at the counter in the morning. The children “check in” with their magnets. Then they go to their group rooms or play in the piazza. They are welcome to wave goodbye at the “wave window”.

The crèche children have breakfast at 8.30 am and the kindergarten children at 9.15 am. 

This is followed by the morning circle in each group. Various activities are offered here, such as discussion groups, singing and circle games, children's conferences or dealing with current topics.

Between 9.45 a.m. and 11.30 a.m., various educational activities are offered. Free play, forest days, gymnastics, creative design, educational units, project work, work with the portfolio, pre-school lessons and much more take place here. The crèche children are also changed and have time to learn about cleanliness.  The rooms are open to all children and there is an open meeting in the house.

From 11.30 a.m. it is lunch time in the crèche. All children are served a warm lunch.

Afterwards, the crèche children sleep from 12.00 to 14.00.

In the kindergarten, lunch is not served until 12.30 pm. Afterwards, they go into the garden as often as possible or have free play time.

The pick-up times depend on the booking times.

From 2.30 p.m. there is another opportunity to have a snack.

From 15.00 s

Food

We attach importance to healthy and balanced nutrition. The kindergarten children bring their own snacks from home. A varied mixture of fruit, vegetables, bread, sausage, cheese, etc. is important to us.

We are happy to do without ready-bought children's products, such as fruit in squeeze bags, milk slices, fruit gnocchi, etc.

A fruit basket is available to the children for the afternoon, which is regularly filled by the parents.

Once a month, a healthy breakfast takes place in our kindergarten.  In cooperation with the parents, who are responsible for the purchase, preparation and supervision, this is a nice and special event for the children. The children can freely choose from a rich offer in a nice atmosphere.

For the daycare children, we prepare the snack ourselves and also pay attention here to balanced and varied meals.

We obtain our lunch from the in-house kitchen. The food is freshly prepared there every day. As a rule, the meal consists of a main meal, a salad and or occasionally a dessert in the form of fruit or yogurt.

As beverages, the children are provided with water or tea and occasionally juice spritzers or Kaba.

Basics

"Children should play more than many children do these days. Because if you play enough while you're little, you carry treasures inside you that you can draw on later throughout your life." (Astrid Lindgren)

We have made this quote from Astrid Lindgren our own guiding principle. We give the biggest place to the PLAY in the daily activities. In play, as an essential activity of the child, all our goals are achieved. The child understands the world and makes a variety of experiences, because play is learning!

Through the stimulating design of the facility and the additional regular use of the nearby forest, we also give the child space to fulfill his natural need for play, movement, discovery and research.

In our loving family atmosphere, each child can develop individually, according to his or her strengths and weaknesses. In doing so, it is important to us to meet the demands and needs of the children through intensive cooperation with the families.

The basis of our daily pedagogical work is the Bavarian Education Plan (BEP). Our work is reggio-oriented and partially open. We see our main task in giving children the framework they need for a healthy and child-oriented development. Our goal is to support and accompany them in their development into independent personalities.

Employee

Our professional staff is a well-coordinated team. Qualified pedagogues arrange the stay of your child with commitment and competence, openness, understanding, creativity and a lot of love for the child. 

Currently, our team consists of 5 pedagogical staff members in full or part time. The team also includes various cleaners and janitors.

For our team, further education and exchange among each other are a matter of course in the interest of our work with the children. We also see our house as a training center and therefore gladly accept interns. We see ourselves as a living part of our community and are in active contact with public institutions as well as with other social institutions.

Teamwork with parents

Today, our children are growing up in a multicultural and diverse society. The primary family model of the extended family is increasingly giving way to a wide variety of other ways of life. They all shape the concept of the family.

Education, upbringing and care are therefore primarily the responsibility of the parents, but are supplemented and supported by the day care centers, whereby the educational decision of the parents is to be observed by the pedagogical staff (Vgl. BayKiBiG Art.4). We support the acquisition of a wide range of experiences, key competencies and understanding of the world by being aware of our responsibility in the learning and development process of the children. We would therefore like to invite parents to enter into an "educational partnership" with us and for their child.

The uniqueness of the child determines its own rhythm of life and learning. This is given the necessary room for development in the day care center.  The adult's task is to perceive the signals that the child shows in his or her interaction with the environment and to respond to them responsibly. The child is an active co-creator of his environment and an "expert" of his own environment. We educators see ourselves here as observers, companions and offer assistance. In order to support the child in the best possible way and to promote his or her development and strengthening of competencies, we focus on the individual resources.

Specifics

Shaping transitions

In order to ease our families' transition from home to daycare and all the new challenges that come with it, we give them as much time as they need. At the very beginning, we hold registration interviews, information afternoons and taster sessions, which provide time for individual questions. The settling-in process is carried out according to the individual needs and requirements of the children and parents, whereby we are guided here by the Munich and Berlin models.

In order to make the internal transition from nursery to kindergarten easier for the children, we start getting to know the new environment at an early stage. At the beginning of the kindergarten year, the new children choose a preschooler who will act as their mentor and provide support and assistance, especially in the early days. Parents are also prepared for the transition with an information afternoon (in the summer before the transition), receive all important new information and have time to ask any questions that may arise. We also offer parents the opportunity to observe the kindergarten together with their child.

For a successful transition to school, children need not only a healthy, physical development, but also mental, social and emotional competencies. All the foundations for this are laid in kindergarten. We pursue this goal from the very beginning and encourage the child in its entire personality.

Projects

Offers in the course of the seasons, festivals and celebrations:

In our work, we orient ourselves to the natural course of the seasons and sensitize the children to this through various appropriate offerings. We celebrate festivals that are suitable for the age groups. Parents can and should also actively participate.

A brief overview:

Lantern making, partly with the parents
St. Martin's Day celebration with the parents
Advent and/or St. Nicholas celebrations in the groups
Baking cookies together
Carnival preparations, carnival celebration with the children
Lent
Easter celebration, Easter breakfast
Mother's Day, Father's Day or family celebrations
joint summer party, barbecue or garden design, etc.
Thanksgiving
Birthday celebration in the group
Water days
Forest days
various projects, e.g. world of colors, sensory garden
graduation parties

Excursions

Depending on the age, interests and theme of the children, we make joint excursions:

Walks to the playgrounds in the surrounding area
Forest excursions
Theme-specific excursions by train and bus
Kindergarten final trip
Crèche final excursion
Excursion to library, school, police, environmental garden
Trips to the Christmas market
etc.

Additional and external offers:

Forest day for all children
Gymnastics for the crèche children and the kindergarten children one morning a week in the gymnasium of the Salberghaus.
"Polar bear" and puppy hour for the future school children
Ball school
Music school

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Parental Interviews

Regular parent surveys are conducted as part of the Bavarian Education and Childcare Act.

Overview

Registrations are made centrally through the municipality. A visit and internal registration is possible after on the open day or by prior appointment.

The allocation of places for children on the registration list is based on the following criteria:

a) children who are growing up with a single parent

b) children whose parents are in a special situation of need

c) children who will be required to attend school next year

d) children whose siblings already attend the facility

e) other pedagogical and organizational factors

Internal children who transfer to our kindergarten have priority over external enrollments.

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