Energy and Climate Protection in Kindergartens in Berlin

Since 2016, the Berlin Energy Agency (BEA), supported by Berlin’s Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection, has been running the project ‘Energy and Climate Protection in Kindergartens’. The project is aimed at children between the ages of four and six, preschool teachers and the technical staff of Berlin’s 2,200 kindergartens.

Each year, up to 50 ‘lighthouse kindergartens’ can participate in the project. They receive a ‘Berlin climate box’, a collection of selected media and learning material with which the project contents can be conveyed in a practical and playful manner. In play and learning sessions, the teachers develop simple terms and concepts with the children regarding weather phenomena, energy use in everyday life and their own influence on the living environment.

The project helps teachers integrate these topics into the day-to-day life of a kindergarten in a  natural way. All project materials are available on the Internet for free download. BEA is responsible for the technical content while the educational service provider SchulePLUS, in cooperation with student teachers, brings its pedagogical expertise. In 2017, the project received Berlin’s ‘Climate Protection Partner of the Year 2017’ Award, given out, inter alia, by the Berlin Chamber of Industry and Commerce.