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The Daycare Centre UKE cares for up to 165 children aged 0 to 6 years in 10 groups. The daycare center is run by the University Medical Center Hamburg Eppendorf (UKE). The UKE is one of the largest hospitals in Hamburg and employs about 8,900 people in many professional fields. One focus of the UKE is research.
We, the Studierendenwerk Hamburg, have been running the Kita UKE since 2010, which means that we are responsible for the entire educational work of the Kita. The daycare center primarily offers places for employees and students of the UKE and its subsidiaries. However, the offer is also aimed at parents from the district who require the extended opening hours. We offer individually designed areas for each group, equipped with large, bright group rooms, checkrooms and washrooms. The spacious room concept is complemented by a gymnasium, studio, children's kitchen, therapy room, research room and learning workshop. For our youngest children, we have bedrooms where each child can find his or her own quiet area. The daycare center has a beautiful, spacious outdoor area with many trees, bushes, hedges and hills.
Interested parents have the opportunity to get to know the Kita and register their interest in a Kita place at the information afternoon, which we offer every first Monday of the month at 3:30 pm. The places are allocated two to three times a year by a commission according to fixed criteria. This commission is made up of members from different areas of the UKE and the daycare center management.
Our daycare center is for all children, accordingly children with increased care and support needs are part of our community. The special educational needs are determined in appropriate counseling centers by means of an expert opinion. Children under 3 years of age with an increased need for care and support are cared for in our daycare center in cooperation with the early intervention center Therapiezentrum Elbhöhe. We also work closely with therapists.
Health promotion is an important focus of our work. This includes physical activity and nutrition education and is rounded off, among other things, by cooperation with various departments of the UKE. Offers and projects on these and other topics are geared to the needs and developmental stage of the children. Psychomotor activities are of central importance for the health promotion in our house. We offer the children plenty of time and space for movement and outdoor play. The daily provision of wholesome and healthy meals is also a fundamental concern for us. We pay attention to this not only when providing breakfast and snacks, but also when selecting the daycare caterer who provides us with a hot lunch every day. Early involvement of the children in dental care is also important to us: teeth are brushed daily in the elementary groups. Every child in the elementary area participates once a year in the "Dental Project" at the dental clinic of the UKE. As part of this project, the children are examined on the one hand, and on the other hand they are allowed to try out the equipment of a dental practice themselves and ask the experts all the questions they can think of regarding teeth.
The groups start their day after breakfast in the morning circle and once a month together with all groups in the hall of the daycare center. Guitars and a variety of musical instruments are used there. An external music teacher brings in varied musical activities for the daycare and elementary children on a weekly basis.
Creativity plays an important role in our daily routine. For us, creativity includes not only painting and handicrafts with the children, but is reflected in play, musical, experimental and other areas of daily interaction. In our group rooms we offer space for imagination and creativity through various materials. The children also find space for creative, artistic activities in our studio, where they work on projects and also on offers in small groups under supervision. Here we experience the expressiveness of the children, who make their emotions, moods and values visible in pictures, collages and transparencies.
We have set up a research room for our children's urge to discover and explore. There they can work with different materials in the fields of mathematics, physics, biology or chemistry and look for their own challenges and find solutions to questions. Our pedagogical staff obtain further qualifications in the areas of natural sciences, mathematics and technology at the "Haus der kleinen Forscher" (House of Little Researchers) training facility and put this into practice.
Preschool work is an integral part of our educational work. For us, preschool work does not begin in the year before school, but is a complex process that begins when the children enter our daycare center as an educational institution. Our 5 and 6 year old children experience the daycare bridge year in a fixed group in the "tower". They experience a change of status, and prepare for the transition to school. The preschool team creates an annual plan for the preschool group, taking into account various developmentally specific offerings such as Numberland, Writing Culture, and projects such as Traffic Education. In addition, the children meet in the learning workshop in the preschool room for various offerings.
Promotion of basic competencies
Social competencies, feeling like a member of a community, taking responsibility, developing a healthy self-confidence, recognizing one's own strengths and weaknesses, willingness to learn, awareness of rules and independence are key competencies that we promote.
Development of linguistic, mathematical and scientific competencies
Through various learning opportunities using worksheets, books, numbers, letter games, experiments and observations, the children learn to solve different questions or problems. In the learning workshop, they can work with a variety of materials and equipment, see how things work, and explore relationships.
Expansion of motor skills and abilities
Gross and fine motor skills as well as coordination skills are further developed, for example, through various offerings in the writing workshop. The children deal with writing culture and develop skills and abilities in handling pens. The children learn to work even more precisely and accurately with various materials such as paper, wood, wool or fabric.
Examples of topics for projects in the Kita-Brückenjahr are
Examples of excursions and explorations
The UKE has been named the most family-friendly large company in Germany. The UKE daycare centre contributes to this with its flexible working time models, its flexible further training offers, its childcare hours as well as its weekend care and its childcare offers during the holidays.
Would you like to become active yourself as a parent? With the support of the "Förderverein Kita UKE e. V." you can make a significant contribution to optimising childcare at the Kita UKE. You can find more information here.
You can get an overview of all daycare centers in our daycare centre flyer and in more detail in our brochure "Unsere Kitas".
