Gallery 2022-2023

Christmas - December 2023

The children enjoyed a traditional Christmas Dinner cooked by some of our Trustees, after which they had a visit from Santa and his elves.

Remembrance Day service - November 2023

Our children proudly took part in the Remembrance Day service. We walked through the town following the band and even marched to the drum beat. We carried our wreath with pride and waited to be called out to lay this at the memorial. The Royal British Legion and local Councillors praised us for our attendance and behaviour as some of the youngest participants.

Children in Need - November 2023

The children enjoyed supporting Children in Need by wearing yellow or spots, we even had a visit from Pudsey!

We took part in Joe Wicks workout too and raised £85.00

MacMillan Coffee morning - September 2023

We celebrated with lots of home made cakes, buns and biscuits and raised an incredible £284.10

Harvest 2023

As part of our Harvest Celebrations the children have been visited by Mark Rowlands from Coastlands Community Church. Mark spoke with the children about Harvest Festival, the children all engaged and asked many questions. The children were so proud of their Harvest donations they invited Mark to follow them into the corridor. Mark was thrilled to see the enormous amount of donations that will help support the community.

The children then visited the Walton and District Community FoodBank to pass on their harvest donations.

This Term's Topic is 'All About Me'! - Autumn 2023

The children have enjoyed various activities to help with our topic ‘All About Me’.

They have been making faces using natural resources from Walton Woods along with playdough and craft materials. They also used glue to stick facial features onto blank faces. We then asked the children if they could point to different features on their own faces. These activities helped the children to gain confidence in their conversational skills, helped develop their fine motor skills and helped them understand similarities and differences between themselves.

In the tuff tray we had cutting hair spaghetti. The children practiced their fine motor skills using scissors to cut the spaghetti. We use language short, long, curly, wavy, straight.

Just Some of the Many Fun Learning Experiences the Children have Enjoyed this Month - September 2023

Coloured monster spaghetti! The children used their fine motor skills using tweezers to grab hold of the spaghetti and place into matching coloured bowls. This also gave the children time to express themselves using language of how they feel ‘sad, happy, excited, angry, confused, scared’. We then read the book ‘The Colour Monster goes to School ‘.

We used bowls, tweezers, mini dinosaurs, vehicles and bears to sort objects into colours. We used tweezers to pick up each mini object to put them in the correct group. This helped to promote gross and fine motor skills to help develop pencil control and scissor control . Children extended this by adding water to see if dinosaurs would sink or float.

We explored a new way of mark making which was using the Beebots with pens. The children had to direct the Beebot by using the different direction buttons. The pens left a trail on the paper so the children could see where they had been.

We had so much fun playing with bubbles. The children explored different objects to create bubble wands. They had conversations about the size of bubbles, the colours they could see in the bubbly water and everyone finished with beautifully clean hands!

Bug hunting with a difference! The children used hammers to break the bugs free from the ice blocks.

Discovering the many different textures found in nature.

Children made their own shakers. They used a variety of spoons and scoops to collect the pasta, rice, lentils and sequins and place them into a bottle. We will use these at circle time to play rhythms when we are singing.

The Caterpillar Class were shown a photo of the Naze tower to link in with our ‘all about me’ topic. We put some paper on the floor along with some paints and sponges. The children used their motor skills to make marks on the paper. We will cut this into the tower shape and display it on our board.

A Fantastic Start to the New Academic Year - Sept 2023

We have had such a busy first couple of weeks as we support our new children to settle and our existing children to get used to their new classrooms.

We have explored to the fullest and found trees to climb, crates to balance on, food to make, tuff trays to be messy in, puzzles to make and of course the grass to be cut. We had so much fun, enjoyed each other’s company, began to make friends and had lots of laughter and fun.

We are of course learning too!

A Wonderful End to the Academic Year of 2023

We had a wonderful Graduation Ceremony and Family Picnic in Walton Woods to celebrate the achievements of, and say a fond farewell to our Butterfly Class of 2023.

We all feel very blessed to have known the children and extremely emotional to be sending them off on their new adventures.

We wish our families all the very best and we know all the children from Butterfly Class 2023 will continue to be amazing.

Storm Watch - July 2023

We thoroughly enjoyed watching the storm this week. The children were curious as they saw the first flash of lightning then we heard the thunder. We opened the doors and watched the storm whilst discussing what a thunderstorm was. One explanation was “lightning is a flash and thunder is when the clouds dance and rain comes out”

We asked the children if there’s any songs about rain and we sang “I hear thunder” and “it’s raining it’s pouring.”

Frinton Scarecrow Festival - July 2023

The children and staff have had so much fun making our entry for the Frinton Scarecrow Festival.

Transporting our Royal Guard and his trusty steed ‘Windsor’ was interesting! They were both a very popular exhibit with the visitors throughout the day.

Our Blooming Garden - July 2023

Our wild flower garden is springing into life with beautiful flowers and colours to attract the wildlife.

Frinton Firefighters Visited our Pre School

We had an amazing visit from the fire service based at Frinton. The firefighters were so welcoming of the children’s questions and thoroughly enjoyed showing them all the different parts of the engine and all the equipment and tools they carry.

Thank you so much for your time.

Campfire in Walton Woods - July 2023

We enjoyed having a camp fire yesterday and eating smores, so very yummy!

Beach Trip - July 2023

We had an amazing beach trip yesterday with Caterpillar Class. We had so much fun playing in a rock pool and found so many interesting things. We ended the day with a lolly before we walked back to Pre school.

Transport Day - June 2023

We thoroughly enjoyed our transport day. We were joined by our local PCSO officers who helped us understand about road safety and dangers that may occur on the roads and when crossing the roads. The children learnt about road safety that incorporated: roundabouts, zebra crossings, traffic lights, speed cameras and building works as well as staying safe around other road users. After all our fun we came back into our classrooms for a bowl of ice cream.

To further support our Transport Day, our cooking activity this week was also transport themed as we made traffic light biscuits, which were delicious!

Gardening - June 2023

We were very grateful this week to welcome Martina from Honeysuckle Gardening to support the children in planting flowers in their beautifully decorated plants pots which they could then take home. The children loved the activity, adding bobbing butterflies to each pot of flowers. Thank you Martina!

Wildlife Trust's 'Let's Go 30 Days Wild'! - June 2023

We are so excited to be joining in with the Wildlife Trust’s ‘Let’s Go 30 Days Wild’! It’s a fun initiative that encourages children to experience one wild thing every day for 30 days. As part of this month’s 30 days Go Wild, we have been in our forest school taking part in lots of wild activities including counting flowers on the grass, looking for bugs and collecting items found in the garden.

Healthy Eating - June 2023

Our topic has been healthy eating and we have been having lots of fun with different activities to help encourage children to make healthy choices. As well as eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, the children have also been using their artistic skills to draw different fruit and vegetables, and use fruit and vegetables cut up in different shapes and dipped in paint to create pictures. The children also made their own freshly squeezed orange juice to drink at snack time. It was delicious!

Bees! - May 2023

Can you guess what we’ve been learning about? As part of our topic, we’ve had a ‘Bee Day’. We’ve had lots of creative fun and also been using bees to help with our Maths.

Den Building - May 2023

With the lovely weather this week, the children were challenged to make a den for some shade in Walton woods. They had tarpaulin, string, scissors and sticks. With help of an adult, the tarpaulin was tied between a tree and the fence. With lots of great team work, they proudly created a den.

Flower Shop - May 2023

This week Butterfly Class changed their home corner into a flower shop!

We enjoyed having a camp fire yesterday and eating smores, so very yummy!

Planting and Growing - May 2023

The children have been planting lots of seeds and plants, watering them and watching them as they grow. Look at our fabulous grass and cress caterpillars!

King Charles lll Coronation - May 2023

We celebrated King Charles lll Coronation by having a garden party. We were so lucky as we had the most lovely sunny morning. We were joined by the King and Paddington Bear who had marmalade sandwiches. We all sang our new Coronation song and enjoyed the celebrations. The children also took part in lots of creative activities and every child made a card for the king with their own questions written inside which were then all posted to Buckingham Palace.

Wildlife Garden - April 2023

Look at our new wildflower area to attract wildlife to our garden. We have spread wildflower seeds and planted some cottage garden plants which were donated by a member of the Forget me Not group. We have a bee and bug house which we won in a M&S competition to add too. Before and after pictures to show the difference!

Hatching Chicks - April 2023

As part of this term’s ‘Life Cycles’ topic the children had the wonderful experience of hatching chicks at Pre School. They helped in every stage, from looking after the eggs in the incubator, using a special lamp to be able to see the chicks inside the shell, watching the chicks hatch out of the eggs, helping to keep the chicks fed and watered and giving them lots of gentle strokes and cuddles in the classroom and out in the garden.

Silly Sock Day

We celebrated Silly Sock Day during Autism acceptance Week (27th March – 2nd April) by wearing our silliest socks. We celebrate each year to help to raise awareness and start conversations about autism, whilst having fun and coming together to raise vital funds to support the work that Autism Anglia do

International Women’s Day

On March 8th 2023 we celebrated International Women’s Day. As a Pre School we always engage our children in activities and conversations to inspire and reinforce an inclusive mindset.

We champion the role of women and hope to inspire our future generations to challenge any form of discrimination today, tomorrow and everyday.

Holi Celebrations

We celebrated Holi at the end of March, this is the Hindu festival of colours, love and spring. We had various activities such as decorating patterns using coloured rice, paint mixing activities, mixing chalk to create new colours, making different coloured playdough and then mixing them together. We ended the day by taking part in our own colour run outside. We wore goggles or sun glasses and old T shirts to protect our clothes and eyes.

This was such a lovely experience which the children thoroughly enjoyed

6th March Fire Drill

Today the children have practised the fire drill.

They all listened and followed instructions given by their teachers.

The children waited patiently whilst the register was taken and stood nicely at the fire evacuation point.

All children have received a certificate and sticker.

Well done everyone!

World Book Day 2/3/23

Staff and children took part in this years world book day by either dressing up as their favourite character from a book or bringing in their favourite book and wearing pyjamas.

We had a fun day reading lots of stories and love the annual celebration of authors, illustrators, books and the overall joy of reading

St Davids Day Fri 1st March 23

We celebrated St Davids Day by making our own daffodils.

Pancake Day

To celebrate Pancake Day the children have participated in various activities. They have been busy cutting and sticking to make their own pancakes with different toppings. On the maths table we’ve had out different size frying pans with numbered pancakes. The children even had a go at flipping the pancake in the frying pan.

The children all came together during snack time, followed a healthy recipe of how to make pancakes, helped mix the ingredients together alongside staff in readiness to cook their pancakes.

The children self selected their fruit for extra toppings alongside some lemon and a little drizzle of sugar. Don’t they look delicious!

Chinese New Year 2023 - Year of the rabbit

We celebrated Chinese New Year in January, we ate noodles and prawn crackers which were delicious. The children made traditional red money wallets, Chinese lanterns and attempted to copy some traditional Chinese writing. We had noodles in our tuff tray where we practised using chop sticks! We set up an interest table with all things Chinese in order that the children could explore and extend their knowledge.

Special Christmas Visitors!

On the 1st of December Pre School children had some special visitors ……. The cheeky elves, Sparkle and Shine had arrived!

During the last week at Pre School, whilst lots of festive activities were taking place, one special occasion we were all looking forward to was Christmas dinner.

We all came together for this very special social occasion. With helpers from the Committee supporting with cooking and Foodbank joining us too for dinner.

Lots of crackers were pulled and laughter had by all.

A very special thank you to our Committee helpers and also to Food Bank who paid for the Christmas meal. Walton Pre School is very thankful for the support we receive.

Look at the children’s beautiful Christmas inspired art work.

Children in Need 2022

Thank you all for supporting Children in Need. We are thrilled to have raised £40.00.

The children all took part in a variety of activities, during our pyjama day at Pre School.

We also had a very special visitor too! Thank you to our local Primary School – Walton Primary School.

Remembrance Day - November 2022

On Friday 11th November the children at Pre School held a 2 minute silence to remember all of our soldiers and animals that fought in the war.

In preparation the children made individual lanterns to hold as well as using the Pre School uniform to create one large Poppy in the middle of the Pre School Hall to stand around during our silence.

The children continued celebrating the day with a variety of craft activities.

On Sunday our staff, family and children attended the Walton on the Naze Remembrance Service and laid a poppy wreath in the Memorial Gardens.

We are all so incredibly proud of you.

Thank you for all taking the time to represent Walton Pre School on this occasion.

Well done everyone!

Halloween 2022

We all had a spooktacular day at pre-school today.

Diwali

During this week the children have celebrated Diwali.

The children have explored fact files with staff, understanding the meaning of Diwali: Row of lights; A festival celebrated by Hindus and Sikhs.

With the classrooms coming together staff and children created a large Rangoli pattern on the floor using a wide range of coloured rice.

First the children collaged half an elephant face (Caterpillar Class 2-3 years and Butterfly Class 3-4 years) showing their differentiation and interpretation in choice of materials and resources used.

The elephant symbolises: education, wisdom, wealth and prosperity.

The children discussed the colours and identified that each bag contained a matching cup.

The children worked together and filled the pattern beautifully. Look what we created!

Potion Making Activity

This week the children took part in a potion making activity. Flowers were added to the table along with scissors for the children to cut, snip and pull the petals and leaves off.

We discussed the smell, texture as well as ingredient’s that we felt were missing to finish our potions.

The children gathered their clip boards and drew pictures to identify to staff the ingredients that needed to be collected from the kitchen: bubbles, water, coloured water (food colouring) and spoons.

Their potions were very magical!

Her Majesty The Queen

On Friday the 16th September the children came together in their classes to remember Her Majesty The Queen. The children looked through national newspapers at circle times, took part in beautiful art activities and stood for a 1minute silence.