Barkley Meets Brouwer

Here I am with Sigmund Brouwer at the Virden Junior High. I got my picture taken with him. Sigmund Brouwer is a Canadian Book Author. This is one of my first adventures as the kindergarten mascot. This was a great adventure and I hope I get to go lots more places. Bye for now!

Barkley the Book Loving Beaver

Beaver Facts

To find out what we knew about beavers, we drew pictures and Mrs. Caldwell printed a sentence.


We read two books about beavers. One was called Busy Beavers by Susan Canizares and Pamela Chanko. The other book is called Beavers and Other Rodents by World Book Company.
Here is what we learned:
Beavers make dams and eat trees. Beavers chop down trees with their sharp front teeth. Beavers eat wood. Beavers make a lodge. It is a cozy home. Beavers love to swim underwater. Beavers make beaver dams in rivers and streams. Beavers slap the water with their tail to warn other beavers if danger is coming.

Barkley Goes to Grade 1

I went to show and tell.

Barkley's Favourite Letter is B!

Hi boys and girls,
Yesterday was a very exciting day for me--it was my first day of Kindergarten at Oak Lake Community School. I know I had a bit of a late start, but I had a lot to do in my home in Flat Creek before I could join you at school. When I woke up yesterday, there were icicles in my lodge. I knew it was time to move to the warm Kindergarten classroom for the winter! I'm sure glad I did because it is even colder today.

I heard a lot of words yesterday that started with B. I heard a lot of different names for me like Benny, Bobby Joe, and Bart. I heard other B words such as boat, big, bunny, burrow, bridge, and brother. I even saw Mrs. Caldwell and the Kinders use this big white screen (I think it's called a SmartBoard) to learn about Bouncy Ben in Letterland. Mrs. Caldwell and the Kinders recorded the lesson and posted it to the blog so you can watch it at home and get extra practice! When you are printing the letter B, make sure you always start at the top.

A special hello to my new friend Piggley in Ireland, Ms. O'Connell, and all the boys and girls there. Next time you see me I might be wearing some new clothes. One of the Kindergarten moms sent me a shirt with a beaver on it!! I love it! Stay tuned for my next blog post about my trip to see a famous author in Virden. I hope the Grades 5 and 6 students will help me write it as it is very hard to keyboard with my beaver paws! Have a super day everyone.

Love, Barkley

Barkley Comes to Oak Lake Community School

After we sang O Canada, Mrs. Williams (our secretary) buzzed our classroom on the intercom. She said, "Come to the office. There is something you should see." When we got down to the office, we saw a beaver outside on the front steps of the school. He was wearing a red t shirt. Mrs. Caldwell said we should let him in. He felt very cold! It is -28 degrees Celsius with the windchill this morning!

We were excited and happy. We brought the beaver to our classroom. We had to decide on a name. Some of the names were Buddy, Bobby Joe, Bouncy, Benny, Barnaby, and Bart. All the names started with B! We made a graph on the Smart Board and voted. 5 kids wanted to name our beaver Barkley, 2 kids liked the name Buddy, 3 kids chose the name Bart, and 1 person picked Bouncy. So his new name is Barkley the Beaver. We think it is a good name because beavers like to eat bark!







Our beaver was very cold waiting on the step!

Blogging in Kindergarten

After attending the Worldwide Microsoft Innovative Teachers' Forum in Hong Kong last week, I was inspired to create a blog for my Kindergarten class. The Kilvemnon School blog and Piggley were the inspiration for this project. My Kindergarten students and I viewed their blog, and they were very excited to get our own class mascot and have our mascot write about his adventures on our own blog.

Today we made a graph on the Smart Board in an effort to decide on our mascot. We narrowed it down to Canadian animals such as a moose, chipmunk, beaver, buffalo, and wolf.

After we purchase our mascot, our first task will be to learn how to use the digital camera. My students are only five years old, and many have not used a camera independently. Once we are able to use the digital camera, we will take turns taking our mascot home and photographing his activities. As a class we will upload the pictures to our blog and write about the mascot's visit to a student's home.

Check back over the next few days as we add our first posts!