Sonnenschein

Opening hours

• Monday – Friday
• 6.45 a.m. – 5 p.m.
• Visits by prior arrangement
• Flexible day-care times upon request

Job vacancies

Free places

We still have places available for the nursery for 2025! We look forward to receiving your daycare place inquiry at: sonnenschein@finkenau.de

Childcare provision

The childcare offer includes two nursery groups for children from the age of 1 and an elementary area for children from the age of 3. We also offer a bridge year for children of pre-school age. We work according to the partially open concept.
All new children who come to the daycare center are acclimated according to evaluated acclimation models for daycare centers.

Educational offer

Our focus is on promoting social-emotional skills, self-efficacy and independence. Movement, language education and diversity are also part of our profile.

The children can freely develop their needs and interests by exploring themed functional rooms and areas and actively helping to shape the daycare center’s daily routine. It is particularly important to us to provide empathetic support in building relationships and dealing with conflicts and emotions (social-emotional skills). The children should also develop into independent personalities – here we take a lot of time to explain, listen and develop solution strategies.

Daily movement is made possible both in the spacious rooms and on the movement corridors as well as through the movement landscapes and psychomotor activities in our own sports hall. The spacious and natural outdoor area also invites children to try out and explore.

Topics such as multilingualism and language education integrated into everyday life are a particular focus for us. The daycare center participates in the state program Kita Plus, which focuses on everyday language education and language development, inclusion, cooperation with families, social networking and teamwork. The program enables additional staff hours and services such as intensified language support for children with special needs.

We live and celebrate diversity in a big way. We take a very broad view of this and deal with very different topics such as biodiversity, cultural diversity and forms of coexistence. The diversity of families and people at our daycare center is as colorful as the district itself. This diversity enriches our everyday life and offers many opportunities for exploration and philosophizing. In doing so, we look at questions of tolerance, democratic coexistence and solidarity with the children. It is particularly important to us to strengthen the children’s ability to speak and to promote their democratic understanding.

A special offer is the joint daycare project “Diversity Weeks”, which takes place every year on different topics and ends with an exhibition and a family celebration of diversity.

Our educational work is based on the Hamburg educational guidelines and framework agreements of the City of Hamburg regarding quality. This means that we base our activities on the children’s perspective approach and on the children’s interests and needs. We offer a wide range of experiences in all areas of education, from movement and communication to awareness of the social and cultural environment, initial scientific experiences, visual arts and music.

Further offers:

• Morning circle
• Picture book viewing, Kamishibai, shadow theater
• Bridge year for pre-school children
• Daycare overnight stay
• Daycare trip for bridge year children
• Educational and learning stories, portfolio
• Functional and experience areas
• Open breakfast and lunch in the elementary area

Cooperation with parents

• Thematic parent cafés
• Annual parent survey
• Parents’ council
• Parents’ evenings
• Conversations at drop-off and pick-up time
• Complaint management
• Annual development talks
• Support offered by internal counseling team
• Celebrating festivals together
• Participation in planning and implementation

History

After existing for several years as a temporary facility on the current daycare grounds, the Sonnenschein daycare center moved into the adjacent historic school building in 2002. The fate of the children from Bullenhuser Damm during the National Socialist era and the Second World War is linked to the building. The memorial to the association is located in the same building as the daycare center. The immediate surroundings of the daycare center are characterized by industry and commerce, but also by the island location of Billerhuder Insel and the waters of the Bille with its canals.

Day-care centre team

Qualified educators from a range of professions work at Finkenau’s facilities. Housekeeping and cleaning staff are also an integral part of the team. We are particularly committed to providing interns with qualified training.

Some teams receive additional support from volunteers or federal volunteers (“Bundesfreiwillige”).

Case discussions are held and pedagogical topics as well as conceptual and organisational matters discussed at the staff meetings that take place regularly. Our employees’ documentation and observation of the children’s development is an essential part of the work. All employees attend training courses on a regular basis.

Spatial layout

Our large and bright rooms, with high ceilings, wooden floorboards and lots of windows, are spread over two levels. The flexible furniture (specially designed for the daycare center) allows the children and staff to redesign and change the rooms again and again. A dedicated sports hall is a special feature of our daycare center.

Elementary area:

• 5 functional rooms that are also used as group rooms: Story and creative room, building and construction room, role play, dance and theater room, studio, sports hall, bridge year room, reading and retreat areas
• Children’s restaurant
• Movement and play corridor
• Washroom
• 2 checkrooms

Nursery area:

• 4 functional rooms, which are also used as group rooms: Building and construction area, morning circle and play area, sensory perception area, role-play area, reading and cuddling area, mezzanine, portfolio and book area, dining and studio room, sports hall
• Sleep room
• Movement and play corridor
• Washroom with shower, bathtub and changing area
• Checkroom

Outdoor area:

• Spacious, natural outdoor area
• Rich in trees, plants and hedges
• Raised beds, flowers and herb areas
• Insect hotel and bird houses
• Swings, slide, climbing frame, sandboxes
• Building corner, kitchenette, sensory perception area, campfire site, real sailing boat
• Many places to retreat to, such as the wooden house or hedge maze
• offers plenty of sun as well as shade thanks to large trees and additional awnings