OLCS Kindergarten

Barkley's Weekend May 13-15

2011-05-18T14:33:00.001-05:00

Barkley is on top of the roof at Dandy's Drive Inn.
Barkley is swinging on the swing.
Barkley wanted to go on the computer at the credit union.

Barkley May 16-17

2011-05-18T14:27:00.001-05:00

Barkley is playing with the toys.
Barkley and I are looking at my brother.
Barkley is about to eat some salsa!

Barkley's Snack

2011-05-12T14:43:00.000-05:00

Barkley is looking for some water and a snack in the fridge. He was hungry!
Barkley is sliding down the slide. He was having fun.
Barkley wanted to do a flip on the trampoline when he bounced!

Barkley's Weekend May 6-8

2011-05-10T10:38:00.001-05:00

Barkley is playing in the kitchen. He is eating his dessert.
After his dessert, he watched TV. Barkley likes to watch American Idol.
Barkley likes to play Uno. Barkley won the game!

Mittens

2011-01-17T09:45:00.002-06:00

We are learning about mittens. We just made a graph about what we wore on our hands today. 2 people wore gloves, 4 people wore mittens, and no one had bare hands. It is very cold today, so it's good that we all wore something to keep our hands warm. After recess, we will read the story "The Mitten" by Jan Brett.

Superhero: Superball Girl

2010-10-25T16:51:00.001-05:00

She throws hard balls at bad guys!

Superhero: Violet Victoria

2010-10-25T16:49:00.001-05:00

Superhero: Diamond Castle

2010-10-25T16:48:00.001-05:00

Superhero: Lulu Ladybug

2010-10-25T16:47:00.003-05:00

Superhero: Camouflage Man

2010-10-25T16:44:00.003-05:00

Superhero: Rainbow Roxy

2010-10-25T16:43:00.000-05:00

Superhero: Bull Dude

2010-10-25T16:42:00.001-05:00

Superhero: Fireman

2010-10-25T16:40:00.001-05:00

Superhero: Colourful Fireball Carl

2010-10-25T16:38:00.001-05:00

Superhero: Fire Girl

2010-10-25T16:35:00.001-05:00

Superhero: Dragonfly Girl

2010-10-25T16:33:00.002-05:00

Superhero: Super Fire-wheel Guy

2010-10-25T16:31:00.000-05:00

Superhero: Saran Man

2010-10-25T16:29:00.002-05:00

Superhero: Crazy Man

2010-10-25T16:25:00.001-05:00

-he shoots crazy twirly string at bad guys!

Week of Generosity Activities

2010-04-26T13:21:00.002-05:00

It was Earth Day on Thursday, but we weren't at school. This week our school is having a "Week of Generosity" and we are learning how to be generous and take care of our planet. We counted how many items we threw in the garbage today. By the time lunch was finished, we threw out 76 items! On Wednesday, we are going to try and bring "litterless" lunch and snacks from home.

We planted tomato seeds this afternoon with our Grades 6/7 buddies.

Here is the picture graph we made to keep track of how many items we threw in the garbage today.

Relaxing at My Friend's House

2010-04-09T14:19:00.001-05:00

I am relaxing in a brown chair at my Kinder friend's house. I also sat on the floor.

Thank Goodness I'm a Country Beaver!

2010-04-09T14:10:00.002-05:00

I am visiting my new friends Cass, Callie, and Beau. They are horses. I wish that I could have ridden a horse!
Next I went to the henhouse to meet the hens. Their job is to lay eggs. Sometimes they are nice hens, other times they peck people. They didn't peck me!
I am riding my friend's dad's new quad. It can go really fast! I also watched a movie. I had so much fun on the farm!

Spring Break Plans for Barkley

2010-03-18T10:59:00.001-05:00

Barkley's Big Busy Weekend

2010-03-16T10:50:00.002-05:00

I was playing with the rabbit at daycare. His name is Hophop. He is my new friend!
I was banging on the drums! I barely made any noise because they are pretend drums.
I was playing the guitar.

Barkley Meets a Boat, Baby, and a Book

2010-03-16T10:46:00.002-05:00

I was playing with a blue boat.
I am reading the book with my friend.
I am jumping in bed! I like the Cars and Transformers pillow cases.

Our Very Own Olympian--Mellisa Hollingsworth's Visit to OLCS

2010-03-12T15:01:00.002-06:00

Mellisa brought the bronze medal she won in skeleton in the 2006 Winter Games in Torino. It was really heavy!

Barkley was so excited to meet Mellisa. He wore his Canada shirt to show how proud he was of Mellisa. She even let Barkley try on her bronze medal while she gave him a hug!

Our Favourite Colours

2010-03-10T14:11:00.002-06:00

Pink was the most popular colour. 6 people liked pink the best. 3 people liked red the best. Red is the second most popular colour. 2 people each liked blue, purple, and black. 1 person liked orange. No one chose yellow, green, or brown.

Snowmen at Night

2010-02-09T15:36:00.002-06:00

We read the book "Snowmen at Night" and created art inspired by the book.

My New Friend Roxy

2010-02-04T14:17:00.002-06:00

I am playing in the baby's chair. It was so much fun! The chair was the perfect size for me, except my tail was hard to fit in!
I was hungry, so my Kinder friend put me in the baby's high chair to feed me. I had to eat baby food. I liked it because it tasted like sugar!
I am staring at a very cute baby puppy. Her name is Roxy.
Roxy is playing with me on the chair. She is a boxer puppy.

Chihuahuas, Hockey, Deer, and Games--I'm Tired!

2010-02-04T14:03:00.003-06:00

I am sitting on the couch with two chihuahuas, Sidney Crosby and Scout. Scout is 8 and Sid is 2. They are really nice dogs.
I am playing hockey. I am wearing a medal and a Canucks jersey. This stick was won by my Kinder friend.
I am playing an exercise game right now. This bike was fun to ride and it had dinosaur games on it.

I am visiting with the monster buck that belongs to my kinder friend's dad. It was a big deer.

Our Morning Message in Grades 1 and 2

2010-02-01T14:13:00.002-06:00

Barkley's Busy Weekend

2010-01-19T14:23:00.002-06:00

I was feeling cold so I snuggled in bed with my Kindergarten friend's special blanket.
I wasn't the only animal when I visited this house. There was a big black dog named Beau. He was such a nice dog! He doesn't bite little animals like me.
I am driving a ski-doo in the picture. VROOOOOOOOOOM! I wasn't wearing a helmet in this picture because I was driving really slow. I had so much fun visiting my Kindergarten friend.

Barkley's Adventures: Baking and Transformers!

2010-01-19T14:17:00.002-06:00

Barkley had a lot of fun when he visited this Kindergarten boy's house. Barkley made cookies and even got to eat some cookies when he was there! The cookies were chocolate! Yummy!
This picture shows Barkley helping to mix the cookies.
This shows Barkley and his Kindergarten friend dressed up as transformers! Barkley's friend was Optimus Prime and Barkley was Bumblebee. Barkley had so much fun!

Our Peace Video

2009-11-13T13:14:00.000-06:00

Kindergarten Superheroes

2009-10-01T13:46:00.002-05:00

Welcome Back to School!

2009-10-01T13:31:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone,

It is now October and students and teachers at Oak Lake Community School have been in school for nearly a month! Mrs. Caldwell and I have been so busy with 14 new Kindergarten students that we haven't even had time to look at our blog. As you can see from the picture, I had a great summer and enjoyed the warm weather! It is cold and rainy now though and I am very happy to be in a warm classroom with 14 busy and fun children!

We are learning about superheroes in Kindergarten, and how all of us can be superheroes every day by being kind, sharing, helping others, being good listeners, and raising our hands. When we walk in the hallway, we try to be so quiet that we are INVISIBLE!

We have drawn pictures of the superhero each of us would like to be. Mrs. Obach's (Miss Hunter's) class at Hamiota Collegiate is going to write a special superhero story about each of us. We are so excited!

Stay tuned to see our superhero pictures. I'm sure you will agree that the Kindergarten students are very good artists!

Love, Barkley

Mrs. Caldwell's Graduation

2009-06-05T11:01:00.002-05:00

On Saturday, Mrs. Caldwell graduated from university. She graduated with a Master of Education degree. One of the K student's moms graduated too. She is a nurse now! Mrs. Caldwell wore a new dress and over her dress she had to wear a blue graduation gown. She wore a special hat on her head. This is Barkley wearing the special hat. Mrs. Caldwell and Barkley had a very fun time!

Planning Our Field Trip

2009-06-05T10:59:00.000-05:00

My Latest Adventures

2009-05-15T10:27:00.000-05:00

I was eating cupcakes with my Kindergarten friend. The cupcakes had blue icing and they were good!
We are looking out the window, watching the snowstorm. I was happy to be in a nice warm house with my friend.

Concentration Game Cards

2009-05-04T09:13:00.012-05:00

Collaborative Project with Ireland and South Africa: Here it is, finally!

2009-04-30T09:20:00.003-05:00

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nOak Lake Community Song: Lyrics
The end of the line was the start of this town

nThere were piles of ties and steel rails to lay down

n The men wintered in tents in the mud of Flat Creek

nThe wind blew through their coats, the swamp swallowed their feet.

From all parts of the world, the new settlers came

To build their homes and stake their claims

A bit further west up on higher ground

Oak Lake was the name they gave to their town.

Chorus:
It’s the place where our seeds have been sown

It’s the place where our families have grown

It’s in our hearts wherever we roam

It may be far, it may be near

It’s always here, it’s our home.

With a pair of oxen and a Red River cart

People came here for a brand new start

The land was watered with their sweat and tears

They toiled hard throughout the years.

Through the day and night in the sun and the rain

We plowed and planted to raise the grain

In burlap bags, we poured our wheat

And lined the bags down main street.

Chorus:
It’s the place where our seeds have been sown

It’s the place where our families have grown

It’s in our hearts wherever we roam

It may be far, it may be near

It’s always here, it’s our home!

Here we are in 2008

We all care for each other in Oak Lake

Writing poems, baking cakes, making art for the fair

A day at the lake, we can’t wait to get there.

To the sand hills we take our toboggans to slide

At the rodeo we watch the cowgirls ride

The sports teams always give us a show

The crowd spirit’s wild, we shout

GO RAPTORS GO!

Chorus:
It’s the place were our seeds have been sown

It’s the place where our families have grown

It’s in our hearts wherever we roam

It may be far, it may be near
It's always here, it's our home!

Kindergarten Weekend Report

2009-04-27T11:25:00.000-05:00

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Made in Manitoba Breakfast

2009-04-27T10:21:00.002-05:00

Good morning to all my friends. I had a wonderful breakfast this morning. It was called the Made in Manitoba breakfast and all the food I ate was grown in Manitoba! The Kinders made a chart of all the foods we ate but they forgot about the milk. Milk comes from cows. The people who grew the food came to our school and cooked it for us. The farmers' names were Mr. and Mrs. Elder (they used to grow flax and wheat), Mr. and Mrs. Cox (honeybees), Mr. Tolton (pork producer), Mrs. and Miss Gompf (pork producers), and Mrs. Buckley (dairy farmer). The breakfast was very delicious and tasty.
Love, Barkley

Festival Performance

2009-04-17T13:43:00.001-05:00

The Kindergarten and Grade 1 students performed as a speech choir at the music and arts festival. We performed two selections: Wiggly Giggles and Band-Aids. We wore band-aids all over our faces! We did a wonderful job and the adjudicator gave us a mark of 97! Mrs. Caldwell was very proud of us.

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Our Easter Egg Graph

2009-04-08T10:40:00.002-05:00

19 was the biggest number and there were 19 speckled mini eggs.
1 was the smallest number and there was 1 orange plastic egg.
Yellow plastic eggs and plain jelly beans both had 6.
We found 12 kinds of eggs.
The Easter Bunny left us 77 eggs.

Easter Bunny Surprise!

2009-04-08T09:52:00.004-05:00

When we got to school this morning, we had a surprise. The Easter bunny had visited the school during the night and hid a lot of eggs in our classroom. He also left a secret message on our Smart Board. We didn't know how to read it, but we finally figured out that we had to erase the white stuff covering the words, then we could read it! He gave us a job to do, so now we are sorting, counting, and graphing the eggs. We hope we get to eat them soon!

Our Spring Break Report

2009-04-06T10:35:00.001-05:00

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Our New Webkinz, Susie the Hedgehog

2009-04-06T10:26:00.003-05:00

We have a Webkinz for our classroom. Mrs. Caldwell bought it for us. It is a hedgehog. Her name is Susie. We had four names for her, Hedgie, Susie, Jasmine, and Harriet. We made a graph and voted. One person picked Hedgie, three people picked Susie, two people picked Jasmine, and three people picked Harriet. We put Susie and Harriet in the Hat and Susie was the one that was chosen. We went on our Webkinz account and fed her, bought her clothes, and bought her a bed. It is going to be one of our centres to look after Susie every day.

Barkley is a Hockey Player!

2009-03-26T14:08:00.002-05:00

I had an exciting weekend with the Golden Bears hockey team. I got to watch 6 hockey games and the Golden Bears won!!! I also got to eat candy and it was delicious.

Barkley's St. Patrick's Day at School

2009-03-26T14:01:00.002-05:00

I had a super St. Patrick's Day at school with my Kindergarten friends. Mrs. Caldwell gave all the boys shamrock antennas and all the girls got Princess tiaras. We wore green necklaces around our necks.

Did you notice my new t-shirt? Mrs. Caldwell brought us t-shirts from New York City. The boys got white t-shirts and the girls got pink t-shirts.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Collaborative Project with Ireland and South Africa

2009-03-12T09:37:00.004-05:00

We have three community songs for our school and town (Oak Lake, Manitoba). The students wrote these songs with a local folksinger, Tannis Slimmon, and her friend Katherine Wheatley. The first song we are going to share with you is the Oak Lake Community Song. The chart below shows some of the nouns, adjectives, verbs, and phrases from the song.

Morning Message

2009-03-03T09:28:00.001-06:00

Sledding, Hockey, and Darth Vader

2009-02-23T14:14:00.002-06:00

I had another great visit to a Kinder's home. This is me in his hockey bag. I didn't get to play hockey though because I didn't have any hockey equipment.

This is my Kinder friend dressed up as Darth Vader. I was scared of him in his costume! Look at my new t-shirt. It has the British flag on it. I love my new shirt.

I am at hockey with my Kindergarten friends. I am in the dressing room getting my picture taken.
I am cuddling in bed with Elmo and Alex. I was tired after all the fun I had at my Kinder friend's house!
I was on the sled outside. I was playing in the snow and I got messy. I even had to go in the washer and dryer. I got soap in my eyes and it really stung!

Community Helpers

2009-02-23T10:28:00.002-06:00

We are learning about community helpers today in Kindergarten. Here is the list we made.

Valentine Cards Attributes and Sorting - Grade 1

2009-02-18T10:48:00.003-06:00

We had some Valentine's treats this morning and learned about Valentine's stuff on the Smart Board. We looked at Valentine's cards and and checked off the attributes each card had. Then we sorted Valentine's cards using a Venn diagram. First we sorted for hearts and people, then we sorted for animals and red.

We are still working on Valentine's Day because we had only had one day of school last week. The roads were closed because it was very very icy.

Barkley Has Been Here, There, and Everywhere!

2009-02-16T14:50:00.003-06:00

A lot of exciting things happened to me while our blog wasn't working. I visited a lot of the Kindergarten students' homes and I had a wonderful time. In the picture above, I was snacking on a branch from a Christmas tree...yummy!

After my snack, my friend helped me brush my teeth. It is important to brush and floss my beaver teeth to keep them white and healthy. He also took me to catechism where we learned about Jesus.

The Kindergarten class had a literacy lunch at school. I had never been to a literacy lunch before, but it is a lot of fun! A lot of the Kindergarten parents came to the school and we had lunch in the library. We had some really delicious pizza, and then we got new books to read with our families.

This picture shows me dressed up in a monkey costume. It was really fun pretending to be a different animal, and my friend dressed up as a caterpillar. He also took me to church, and I met the priest and some of the other families who go there. Thank you Kindergarten students for all the fun adventures!

Barkley Visits Mapleton School

2009-02-16T14:33:00.004-06:00

On a very cold morning, I travelled to Mapleton School with Miss Hunter and Mrs. Caldwell. We spent the morning learning about MARVIN software. I wasn't very interested in it but Miss Hunter, Mrs. Caldwell, and Mr. Dudar (the principal of Mapleton School) were pretty excited about how it could be used in the classroom. The avatars that talked, moved, and looked like real people and animals were pretty cool though. I was disappointed that there wasn't a beaver avatar!

I also got to meet some of the people who travelled to Hong Kong and Singapore with Miss Hunter and Mrs. Caldwell. Norm Lee (Mindset, and one of the judges at the Worldwide Innovative Teachers' Forum) and Kevin Hnatiuk (New Media Manitoba, he filmed the whole trip) joined us for lunch.

Mapleton School is a very nice school and I want to say thank you to Mr. Dudar and his staff for their hospitality!

Good Morning

2009-02-05T09:39:00.001-06:00

People and Things We Love

2009-02-04T10:57:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone,
I had an exciting morning with the Grade 1 class. They are such super writers, and we used their brand-new Smart Board to brainstorm ideas for our valentine's writing. Here are some of the ideas the Grade 1 class came up with:

More Exciting Adventures: Hockey, Birthday Parties, Cats, and Snow

2009-02-03T14:15:00.008-06:00

Hi everyone! It's Barkley the Beaver here. Sorry I haven't written to you for a long time, but my blog was blocked. It is fixed now, so I have lots to tell you. In December, I went to the hockey rink to practice hockey. I even watched the boys and girls from Kindergarten playing hockey. Do our friends in Ireland and South Africa ever play hockey?
This is me having a piece of birthday cake. It was one of my friends' 7th birthday parties. The cake was delicious. Do you like my bib that I wore to keep my fur clean?

I made a new friend. This is my friend Stripety the Cat. I have never had a cat for a friend before!

I was playing in the snow. Did you know that it snows a lot where we live? My friends took good care of me though. I am wearing a scarf to keep warm!

Barkley Goes to Brandon University

2008-12-16T12:59:00.008-06:00

Hi everyone,

A couple of weeks ago I went to Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba. I helped Mrs. Caldwell and Miss Hunter teach education students (people who are learning to be teachers) all about Smart Boards and the Senteo response system. It was really fun to go to university and see where Mrs. Caldwell learned to be a teacher. I got to see Miss Hunter too, and meet some of the people she goes to university with. It was kind of hard to work the Senteo clickers with my webbed beaver paws, but I did a pretty good job!

Love, Barkley

Barkley Goes to Bottineau

2008-12-01T11:10:00.003-06:00

I went to Bottineau to celebrate American Thanksgiving. Bottineau is in North Dakota in the United States of America. I had to cross the border. I got my passport stamped!

Here are some of the things I did in Bottineau:
-I slept in a real bed instead of my beaver lodge
-I rode behind a quad on a sled
-I ate lefse (Norwegian flatbread). It was yummy!
-I saw a statue of a French fur trapper named Pierre Bottineau. I think he used to hunt beavers for their fur. Yikes!
-I ate turkey and drank orange punch at Thanksgiving dinner.
-I had a super fun time.

Thank you for taking me to a new country.

Barkley Meets Brouwer

2008-11-27T14:38:00.002-06:00

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

2008-11-24T11:06:00.005-06:00

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

2008-11-21T10:44:00.002-06:00

I went to show and tell.

Barkley's Favourite Letter is B!

2008-11-21T08:34:00.002-06:00

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

2008-11-20T09:13:00.003-06:00

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

2008-11-18T22:19:00.003-06:00

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!