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City of London School Highlights-6th June 2025
- 14 mins
🐣 Hatchlings Newsletter – A Week of Learning & Exploration
👋🚌 Modern Languages
This week, our little Hatchlings have been learning all about their body parts in Mandarin! 👐 Teacher Li guided us through the story 10 Little Fingers and 10 Little Toes, helping the children connect language and movement while learning their Mandarin numbers:
1️⃣ 一 (yī)
2️⃣ 二 (èr)
3️⃣ 三 (sān)
4️⃣ 四 (sì)
5️⃣ 五 (wǔ)
6️⃣ 六 (liù)
7️⃣ 七 (qī)
8️⃣ 八 (bā)
9️⃣ 九 (jiǔ)
🔟 十 (shí)
Our babies loved singing along with Mandarin versions of “The Wheels on the Bus” 🚌 and “Old MacDonald,” especially learning the word for bus—Gōngchē. These playful language activities help build early communication skills and confidence.
If you’d like to see how our children thrive in a bilingual environment, book a tour at our City of London nursery and experience the magic of language learning first-hand!
🥣🫛 Regional Activities
Our sensory adventures took a delicious turn this week with a playful exploration of Lithuania’s iconic ‘pink soup’ (šaltibarščiai). Using bright pink fake snow to mimic the soup’s creamy texture, the children scooped, poured, and stirred with real utensils and bowls.
This hands-on activity not only introduced them to a unique cultural dish but also developed fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and imaginative role play as they engaged in pretend cooking and serving. It’s these moments of curiosity and creativity that make our nursery experience so special!
🕯️ Sensory Activities
The Hatchlings delighted in a simple but magical sensory game—“blowing out candles” using flickering LED tealights. 🕯️✨ With giggles and smiles, the children took turns pretending it was their birthday, leaning in to blow out the tiny lights.
Beyond the fun, this activity supported language development and breath control—important foundations for clear speech. As they played, the children practiced turn-taking, expressive language, and built social confidence.
🌍 Festivals
In celebration of World Environment Day, our Hatchlings enjoyed a sensory-rich experience exploring the colours of our planet. 🌎 Using soft blue and green tissue paper, playdough, and pipe cleaners to represent oceans and land, the children sorted, tore, and placed the materials to build a mini world of their own.
This hands-on activity not only supported colour recognition and fine motor skills but also gently introduced the concept of caring for our planet. Through sensory exploration, we’re laying the foundation for a lifelong respect and love for the Earth.
For families looking to extend their child's learning and cultural exploration, why not check out our summer holiday camp at City of London? Every day is an adventure in learning, discovery, and fun!
🐙🎣🎶 Specialist Teachers
Miss Molly brought the magic of the sea to life this week with her enchanting theme “under the sea.” 🌊 Using flowing scarves and ribbon seaweed, our Hatchlings explored textures and movements that sparked curiosity and joy.
We sang ocean-themed songs like “Slippery Fish” and “Under the Sea,” filling the room with smiles and rhythm. The babies also enjoyed drumming sessions that encouraged sharing, turn-taking, and musical awareness.
To end the session, we drifted into a calm and dreamy underwater world, relaxing beneath jellyfish—an enchanting and peaceful way to close our underwater adventure.
Every week at Hatching Dragons is a new opportunity for your little one to grow, learn, and explore. 🐉 If you’d like to learn more about our nurturing, culturally rich environment, book a tour at our City of London nursery or explore our summer holiday camp for more ways to inspire your child’s learning journey! 💛
🐉 City Blue Dragon Newsletter – 06/06/2025
🌍 Regional Education: Slavic People and Eastern Europe
The children have been buzzing with excitement this week as we explored the rich cultures, traditions, and delicious foods of Slavic People and Eastern Europe!
🥟 Pierogi-Making Fun!
To kick off our journey, we rolled up our sleeves and got creative making traditional Polish dumplings—pierogi! Each child received their own piece of dough to squish, squeeze, and fold into dumpling shapes. We talked about how pierogi are often filled with mashed potatoes, cheese, or fruit, and how families in Poland love making them together—especially during holidays.
This sensory cooking activity supported:
- Fine motor development
- Early understanding of cultural traditions
- Confidence and independence through hands-on learning
The children were so proud of their creations—and many asked if we could do it again! 👏
If you’d like to see how we bring cultural learning to life, book a tour at our City of London nursery to see the magic in action!
🌸 Modern Languages: Blue Dragon Celebrates Children’s Day in China!
Although our main theme this month focused on Slavic People and Eastern Europe, our Blue Dragons took a brief cultural adventure to celebrate Children’s Day in China! 🎉
To mark this happy occasion, we created a large paper heart filled with colourful handprints from all the children. Each handprint represented love, friendship, and the special place each child holds in our community. The final artwork now hangs proudly in the nursery—a beautiful, bright reminder of unity and joy.
🧘♀️ Specialist Teachers
Miss Molly’s Sensory Session – Under the Sea Adventure 🐠🦀
This week, Miss Molly led a magical sensory journey under the sea. The children used their imaginations and senses to dive into an ocean world full of crabs, fish, and more. Highlights of the session included:
- Popping bubbles with excitement and giggles 🫧
- Exploring water-themed sensory materials 💦
- Learning how crabs move and fish swim 🦀🐟
We ended the session with calm time—each child lay down with a small paper boat on their chest, practicing gentle breathing to keep it from falling off. This peaceful moment supported emotional regulation and body awareness, leaving the children feeling relaxed and calm.
Thank you, Miss Molly, for another engaging and soothing experience!
🏃♀️ Sporty Minis – Wake the Snake! 🐍
This week’s Sporty Mini session was bursting with energy, giggles, and imaginative play! We started with a fun warm-up, shaking our arms and legs and running on the spot to get our bodies ready.
Then came our favourite game:
“Don’t Wake the Snake!” 🐍
We placed a long line of cones on the ground to represent a sleeping snake. The challenge? To shuffle and tiptoe over the cones without waking it! The children showed fantastic balance, coordination, and concentration as they moved carefully and quietly.
🌿 Dragon Flight Weekly Newsletter – Culture, Curiosity & Creative Play!
This week in Dragon Flight was filled with imagination, movement, discovery, and celebration. From exploring myths in a magical forest to celebrating Children’s Day in Mandarin, the children engaged in a rich variety of activities that supported their development across all learning areas.
🌳 Forest Folklore & Environmental Awareness
In celebration of World Environment Day, our children explored a captivating forest tray filled with natural items and miniature figurines, weaving their own stories inspired by Ukrainian folklore. They took on the roles of forest creatures and spirits—particularly Mavka, the mystical guardian of nature.
Through this imaginative play, children learned about environmental conservation and the importance of protecting natural habitats. This activity sparked creativity, empathy, and an appreciation for the interconnectedness of life.
🔬 Colorful Chemistry: Fizzy Earth Reactions
In a vibrant science experiment, the children mixed baking soda and vinegar to create fizzy, colorful eruptions that represented the Earth’s beauty. This hands-on activity introduced basic scientific concepts like chemical reactions and opened up thoughtful conversations about caring for our planet.
For families interested in more hands-on experiences, don’t miss our City of London summer holiday camp — where every day is filled with learning and fun!
✍️ Tracing and Early Skills Practice
Children worked through literacy and numeracy activity packs, tracing numbers, letters, and shapes to strengthen fine motor skills and build foundational academic confidence. These moments of focused learning balance beautifully with our creative and cultural activities.
🔶 Mandarin Language: Shape Learning
Shape exploration took on an international twist this week as our little learners practiced identifying and naming shapes in Mandarin Chinese:
- Square – 正方形 (zhèng fāng xíng)
- Circle – 圆形 (yuán xíng)
- Triangle – 三角形 (sān jiǎo xíng)
Through pronunciation practice and shape matching, they combined language development with cross-cultural learning. If you’re curious to see how we blend Mandarin learning with play, book a tour of our City of London nursery to see it firsthand!
🎉 Celebrating Children’s Day in Mandarin
On June 1st, we held a Mandarin language and cultural session to celebrate Children’s Day, a special holiday in China. Using visuals, music, and discussion, children learned about this meaningful day and compared it to their own birthday celebrations.
They then practiced writing key Mandarin phrases:
- 儿童节 (Értóng jié) – Children’s Day
- 六月一日 (Liù yuè yī rì) – 1st of June
This engaging activity combined language learning, cultural awareness, and fine motor practice—an unforgettable experience!
👣 Sensory & Drama Play with Miss Molly
In Miss Molly’s joyful sensory session, children explored a bowl of Orbeez, delighting in their texture and vibrant colors. Each child then chose a small animal toy from the bowl and acted out its movements or sounds, while others guessed the animal.
This fun, interactive activity nurtured expressive communication, imaginative thinking, and peer interaction—boosting confidence and building friendships.
🏃 Sporty Minis: Team Games and Balance Challenges
In Sporty Minis, children were split into two teams for a fast-paced, high-energy game with cones. One group turned the cones upside down, while the other flipped them right side up—creating a lively competition that fostered physical agility, strategic thinking, and teamwork.
Next came the exciting “snake game”, where children tiptoed between a line of cones representing a sleeping snake. This activity helped build balance, body awareness, and imaginative movement—a fun way to develop important physical skills.
At Hatching Dragons, we’re proud to offer a rich blend of culture, language, science, and play in every activity we design. 🌟 Explore our City of London nursery or summer holiday camp to learn more about our dynamic learning environment! 💛
