Quality
“孩子有百種語言，百種思維，百種遊戲與表達自我的方式....”
„The Child has a hundred languages, a hundred ways of thinking, of playing, of speaking….“
We implement a German-Chinese bilingual pedagogical concept. We integrate our conceptual emphases on bilingualism and interculturalism with the Berlin educational program. We guarantee compliance with sustainable quality principles in accordance with the Quality Agreement for Day Care Facilities (QVTAG) and the Child Day Care Promotion Act (KitaFöG) of the State of Berlin.
Our aim is to offer children a healthy and bilingual learning environment of a high quality.
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME
Bilingualism in BeKids PlayGarden means continuous bilingual education and care of the children. Our educators speak their mother tongues and act as language role models for children. Bilingualism is part of everyday life in BeKids. We pay special attention to dealing with topics from German and Chinese cultures in our educational programs.
We focus on six educational programme, in which we support our children in acquiring social and learning skills through various projects.
LEARN MORE
HEALTH
„Movement is a fundamental form of thought“
Gerd E. Schäfer
Movement promotes the development of physical and sensory abilities. Through the different seasons and weather, our children have adequate time daily to move both indoors and outdoors to achieve a balance between static and dynamic.
We assist our children in getting used to the everyday life in the kindergarten, by cultivating good personal hygiene and health habits.
We insist on organic meals and fruits, so our children have a healthy, nutritious, varied, and balanced diet. Our children eat independently.
We focus on helping our children acquire:
- Establishment of a regular routine in and participation in day care activities
- Bodily awareness, dental care, hygiene
- Knowledge of healthy nutrition and different cuisines
- An understanding of illness and its prevention
- Knowledge of health, weather and seasons
- Indoor and outdoor physical activity, and excursions
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE
„Parents should give their children two things: roots and wings“
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
It is in kindergarten that the first relationships beyond the home are established. Children learn, from being a member of a group, how to get along with other people, and build friendships. It is here they acquire language skills and social norms. They gain new experiences and discern values. We want to inspire our children to think in many different ways and develop problem-solving skills.
Our learning themes are:
- Understanding the self, family, kindergarten and community
- Exploration of cultures, and appreciation of the cultural and social differences our children bring with them
- Joint determination of and compliance with rules (daycare rules, rules of the game, traffic rules)
- Participation in group activities: morning circle, meals, birthday parties, German and Chinese festivals and celebrations, outdoor activities
- Learning to share: sharing toys, division of labour (e.g. setting the table, tidying up), exchanging views, and helping each other
LANGUAGE, WRITING AND CULTURAL COMMUNICATION, MEDIA
„The limits of my language mean the limits of my world“
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Language is the key through which we communicate, exchange knowledge, and categorise the world. The first word a child speaks, the first picture a child paints, are important milestones in this journey.
Through contact with books and art, children enrich their language development and understand the coexistence of different cultures. We make bilingualism part of everyday life and provide learning materials in both languages. German as well as Chinese children's books, songs, stories, rhymes, and other learning materials offer the opportunity for immersion in the respective language and culture. The principle of "one educator, one language" applies.
To aid the development of language and communication skills, our learning themes are:
- My mother tongue - I can introduce myself with my mother tongue and communicate with others
- Expressing feelings and thoughts in words; expressing opinions
- German and Chinese nursery rhymes and children's poems
- German and Chinese history
- German letters and numbers, Chinese characters and numbers
- Handling media: books, photos, audio books, music CD, electronic media
- Learning to write
- Creating stories with pictures or photos
THE ARTS
Creative activities such as painting, drawing, and working with clay aid children in their language acquisition. By training their perception of everyday life and developing their imagination, aesthetic and visual expression skills are honed.
VISUAL DESIGN
„Creative processes are discovery processes“
Children encounter and learn about the world in their own way. But all children try to draw with their fingers, or with wax crayon, crayons, or watercolours. Children under three years of age gain much sensory experience through the experimentation with creating with different materials, while older children that already understand the differences in these materials often try more differentiated and complex creations. They could even learn simple sewing or how to design theatre props.
We encourage our children to let their imagination run free and explore their creativity, and cultivate a sense of pride in their own creations. You would be amazed at their aesthetic tastes and the insights in their work!
We help our children develop cognitive and creative skills through:
- Drawing with their fingers or various tools
- Creating with available materials or scavenged natural materials
- Experimenting with colours and mixing them
- Observing and experimenting with natural phenomena, such as water, light, shadow, etc.
- Creating alone or together, making sculptures
- Understanding early and contemporary artists
MUSIC
„There are areas of the soul that only music can illuminate“
Zoltan Kodaly
Every human being is musical. Every child, without doubt. With its melodies, rhythms and timbres, music has an effect on our psyches. The enjoyment and relaxation music enables also crosses language barriers.
Music is an important part of the day at BeKids Playgarden. We use musical instruments such as triangle, tambourine, drum, tonewood, and rattles in our play. A small repertoire of songs is firmly anchored in the daily routine. Every morning we welcome each other with Chinese and German songs. Meditative and classical music accompany our children on their fantasy journeys during our relaxation hour. We also turn our children’s attention to the sounds of nature such as the rustling of the wind, the trickling of water, or birdsong. We encourage children's sense of rhythm by running and jumping to rhythmic clapping of the hands.
THEATRE
„Playing is an activity that cannot be taken seriously enough“
Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Performative play is part of the free, naive play of the child who spontaneously slips into the role of another and play pretends.
Theatre allows children to discover themselves. Through dialogue, and movement, they encounter their minds and bodies. Theatre play requires children to be present with their bodies and soul, and allows them to share what they experience intensively with the audience and their friends.
Making funny faces, wearing masks, dressing up, walking around in daddy's shoes, putting on mommy’s make-up: these are all manifestations of children’s desire to express themselves.
In our kindergarten, we help the inner story-tellers in our children come to the fore through:
- Painting and drawing
- Printing techniques
- Shadow, figure and table theatre
- Mask theatre
- Sound collages
- Audio dramas
- Reading aloud and text-bound or free storytelling
MATHEMATICS
„The book of nature is written in the language of mathematics“
Galileo Galilei
We encounter mathematics in all areas of life, and mathematics helps children to orient themselves in the world. Children develop their mathematical thinking through their experiences with numbers, time, space, form, and by measuring, estimating, ordering, and comparing.
Our educational focus is to enable children to grasp the relationship between mathematics and their living environment. Starting with themselves, they learn, for example, how to express their age, height, weight and how many people there are at home. Our children learn German and Chinese numbers and how to count in German and Chinese. Through kindergarten life and its daily routines, our children acquire a basic concept of time, such as the week, months, years, and seasons. Through setting the table for common meals, our children learn more about the correspondence between numbers and quantities. Through their surroundings, children not only learn the shapes and colours of objects, but also understand abstract distances and distances.
We guide children in their observations and experimentation. Together, we use tools for measuring and recording, so that children can find similarities and differences themselves, and learn classification, comparison, estimation, and logical thinking.
NATURE, ENVIRONMENT, TECHNOLOGY
„In nature there is the tangible and the intangible. One should differentiate between these and consider them with respect“
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Children first experience nature with all their senses. Earth, water, air, wind, fire, and other tangible and observable phenomena allow them to discern and perceive nature. These first sensory experiences are the basis on which they deduce and discover. Why is sunshine warm? Why is there wind, rain and snow? Why does a bird fly? Where does light come from? What is energy?
Our garden is a living learning area. It is where our children have access to natural resources that lead them to observe, query, and logically deduce. It is where our children’s imaginations can run free and where they fashion toys or create works of art out of air – you’d be amazed. In different seasons, children can experiment with sunshine, air, rain, snow, or wind, or sow and fertilize vegetables and fruit to document changes in plant growth.
We also introduce children to science and technology so that they better understand the relevance of using technology in everyday life.
WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT
Our premises are inviting and versatile. In the various learning areas, the children can experiment, read, paint, build, undertake role plays, exercise, and relax.
Our garden is a lively learning space that meets the children's needs to be in nature. Here they can explore safely away from the urban chaos. Carefree playing and learning to walk are just as possible as enjoying the warm sun and fresh air. The children can be little gardeners here and sow and fertilize in the small vegetable garden.
ORGANIC FOR KIDS
We pay attention that the children should have a balanced diet. We offer a variety of meals during the week. The menu includes fish, meat, vegetarian food, grains, potatoes or rice, as well as desserts, fresh fruit and vegetables, bread and dairy products.
We encourage the children to eat independently and to decide how much food they want to eat. Together, we establish good eating habits.
Our nutritious lunches are prepared by a qualified and certified organic caterer and delivered to the kindergarten. Fruits and snacks are prepared fresh in our own kitchen.
PARENTS PARTNERSHIP
Parents are the natural experts on their children, and are close, important partners for our educational work. The education of your children is a trust-based confidential partnership between you and us.
This functioning and harmonious relationship is vital: we place emphasis on regular interactions and exchange of information with you. Regular parent meetings, discussions on the children’s development, and parent-child activities will help us to best understand your children's needs.
