Counting with butterflies

Stefanie Lieschke runs the BIP Creativity Daycare Centre on the campus

How can you tell if a child is gifted, and more importantly, in which area? In the 1970s, Hans-Georg Mehlhorn developed a novel teaching method based on talent, intelligence, and personality—the German words resulting in the abbreviation BIP. According to Mehlhorn, talent is not a matter of luck but a question of fostering it.

When, in 2021, Stefanie Lieschke applied for the role as manager of the new daycare centre on campus at Hermann-Dorner-Allee 11, she wasn’t familiar with the BIP approach. “As soon as I understood what set this educational institution apart from others, I quickly started identifying with this pedagogical orientation. I appreciate that the children have the opportunity to grow together in closed, age-homogeneous groups.” The educators guide the children, ideally, from their settling-in phase until they start school, allowing them to build upon their acquired skills and abilities.

The daily routine is clearly structured, explains the educator: “Each group of children starts the day with a morning circle and a welcome song. With the younger ones, we sing two or three other songs or play a quick game. The older children already determine what will be the subjects of the day.” The framework for the daycare and pre-school programme includes its own curricula but also those of the Berlin Education Programme, which mandates subjects such as mathematics, natural sciences, language, art, music, and physical education as part of the curriculum. In each group, which consists of up to 18 preschoolers, children can choose between two offerings. Each activity has places for eight children. “With small groups, we can quickly identify if a child needs more support. If we notice that a child is particularly gifted in one area, they can try a similar activity with an older group and see how they feel there,” says Lieschke.

For an effective learning progress, it’s especially important that the activities change. “Following math with a strategic game would require logical thinking twice. The ideal scenario is to alternate between cognitive and physical activities, which individually stimulate each child’s creativity and help them process what they’ve just learned more effectively.”

The daycare groups are named after animals, which also mark the doors to their rooms. There are butterflies, pigeons, bees, foxes, dragons, and dolphins. Each group has its own coat room, group room, and a quiet room. The design of the facility is intentionally plain so that the children can design their own spaces freely without becoming overstimulated. Each group also has its own colour scheme to help the children find their way around. For the dolphins, the colour is a sunny yellow. Their playroom features a wooden platform where the children can climb, rest, look at books, or crawl under the platform to build a cave. A small, crocheted dolphin also belongs to the group: “The children get to take the dolphin home, and the next day, they share what the dolphin has experienced,” says Lieschke.

The butterfly group—children here are five or six years old—started a nature project last year under the theme “Discover, Invent, Explore”. “We bought caterpillars, fed them, watched as they pupated, turned into butterflies, and then released them.” The children's excitement about observing the butterflies was so great that the educators incorporated the insect into other BIP units. During Artistic Design class, they made butterflies, and in Gardening and Farming, they discussed which plants serve as food for butterflies. In mathematics, they even counted with butterflies.

Susanne Gietl for Adlershof Journal

BIP Kreativitätskitas Berlin