My visit to the Spelling bee

I went to Fermanagh with my pet human this week. We went to the Eason Spelling Bee. A Spelling Bee is a competition to find the best speller, we went to find the best speller in Fermanagh. Fermanagh is up in Northern Ireland and it took ages to get there in Helen's car. I slept a lot in the car because it was really boring. When we got to the school where the Spelling Bee was on I registered as a speller. I signed up as Waddles P Penguin and Elizabeth asked what the P stands for...But I don't tell anyone that because it's a secret and a little embarrassing. But I did like Elizabeth and I gave her a little kiss.

I liked Elizabeth on Registration

When I had registered to spell I was told to go sit down, I sat on the dictionaries. Elizabeth and Helen laughed and said they meant I could sit on the chairs but I thought the dictionary was more comfortable. A dictionary is a funny book where all the words live, some words are really hard and some of them I knew already. A dictionary tells you what the words means and how to spell them. 

There were loads of dictionaries 

When all the other spellers arrived we went to sit on the benches so the Bee Master and Adjudicator could listen to us spell super hard words. The Bee Master calls out the words and the spellers spell them. I had to stand up on the bench so the audience could see me. Then the Bee Master gave me my word, I said the word, spelt the word and said the word again. Some of them were really hard and some of them I thought were a little easy. I spelt Queen and forget correctly and thought they were easy. Then the hard rounds started. I didn't spell cormorant correctly so I was out then. I was a little bit sad but it was still super fun to watch the rest of the spellers and see who won. 

I sat on the bench ready to start

A lovely small human called Andrew won the Fermanagh Spelling Bee. There was guy from the radio there too, he was asking all the small humans questions about the Spelling Bee. Then yesterday it was the Radio with Ryan Tubridy, if you missed it you can listen to a podcast here. It was a little scary talking on the radio but it was still fun and all the small humans seemed to enjoy it too. 

You can listen to the Spelling Bee podcast

There's no more county final Spelling Bees now but the finals are coming up too! At the end of June the finals will be on, I hope I get to go watch them! But even if I can't go I can listen to it on the radio on Ryan Tubridys show. I think all the spellers are amazing and can't wait to wish the finalists the best of luck in June. 

I'm off to play with the Spelling Bee app so I can practice my spelling :) but first I need some fish

I visited the ZOO

I went to the zoo in Berlin, Berlin is in Germany and we had to go on a plane to get there. We left from Shannon in County Clare and landed in Berlin. I really like flying. Penguins can't fly so a plane was super cool for me! I really liked looking out the window at all the clouds!

The zoo is a strange place, some animals live there. The animals there are wild animals but the zoo isn't wild, it's very open though and the animals are safe there. I liked the zoo even though I think animals should be allowed to live in the wild where they are meant to be. I got to meet loads of different animals there I even met some penguins! Helen brought me because she was afraid if the zoo keepers saw a penguin walking around the zoo alone they might think I escaped from the penguin house but I'm a different penguin I live in Ireland not in Berlin Zoo so Helen took care of me and I was very good I didn't wander off and get lost or anything. Helen was really proud of me for being so good.

Elephants are really big compared to me

I really like the Gorilla, he looks grumpy though

Did you know a leopard never changes his spots? 

I learnt to spell rhinoceros for this photo

LOOK AT MY COUSIN PENGUINS!!

The zoo is a really fun place to visit, I saw loads of other animals but I didn't take photos with them all. I really liked the petting zoo, I got to sit on a goat until he kicked me off! I really liked the lambs, they're baby sheep. But I didn't like the Goose there, he hissed at me and scared me. He even tried to bite me, I'm not goose food. I don't think the goose had ever met a Penguin before because he didn't know that he shouldn't eat me!

While I was in Berlin I went to see a bit of the Berlin wall. The Berlin Wall was a huge wall built in the middle of Berlin years and years ago to keep the West and East sides apart. Some people tried to escape over the wall to the other side to their family or friends but lots of people were hurt trying to get over the wall. Some people even died. It was really sad.  The Berlin Wall was taken down in 1989, that's 25 years ago and now people in Berlin can move from East to West freely. I think it's important to know History even the sad bits.

Berlin Wall

I really liked Berlin, I even learnt some German I can say 

Hello Gutten Tag  

Goodnight Gutten Abend 

Thank you Danke 

Please Bitte

It's very different to English but I like learning new languages! I think it's very important to learn different languages and learn about different places and countries. I think I'm a wise penguin because I try to learn new things every day!

I learnt about the library

I even learnt how to spell library. Did you know there's a sneaky R in there to confuse us? I know all about it now and I can spell it really well! I met a book minder there too, her name is Maria. Maria minds all the books in the children's sections of the libraries around Dublin. Dublin is a long way away, it took Helen over two hours to drive there from Limerick. I like being in the car but the other cars on the road scare me. But when we got to Tallaght library I was really excited!

I've been making friends with a lovely Bee on Twitter and he lives in Tallaght library with all the books! I think I'd like to live in the library too!

        Here's me and buzz in the library 

I had a look at all the books, I really liked reading about the penguins! There were lots of really cool books and Maria read me some but my favourite was the book about polar animals, they're the animals that live in snow like me! 

Tallaght library has some really cool art work too! Some schools came in and used recycled stuff to make a giant garden inside! It was so cool! I really liked the giant carrot but it tasted weird! Yuck! 

There was even a recycled Penguin there! I think he looks like my best penguin friend Freddie! Freddie has huge eyes and a really long orange beak, I think I'll send this photo to him. I hope he likes it! 

I really liked Maria the librarian. I love reading and I think Maria has a super cool job! I'd love to mind books too! Books are the best! I brought Maria some brownies I baked! Helen did the hot oven bit because it was too hot for a penguin like me! I ate a brownie with Maria

I love the library! I really hope I can visit again! I'd like to see Buzz again too! You can follow me on twitter too, did you know that? My twitter name is @WaddlesPPenguin and I love tweeting small humans in school :) 

I went to School

School in Ireland is super strange. The small humans learn about numbers but they call them Maths and learn English stuff like writing and reading. Penguin school is different we learn about fish and weather and snow. Small humans in Ireland also learn some Irish, I want to learn that too. Can anyone teach me something to say in Irish?

The small humans were lovely though, they let me join in their human games in PE and they let me teach them some penguin games like Penguin Penguin Polar Bear and BulPenguin. Then they wrote some stories about me and drew some pictures of me. I love seeing pictures of me, Helen says it's because I'm vain but I think it's because I'm really handsome and the small humans drew fantastic pictures of me. Here are some of the stories they wrote me

Living with Waddles

I was having a really strange day. First a penguin came to my house and I named him Waddles. Waddles tried to take my ice cream. He pushed me into the bath. The next day we made friends.

Waddles and The Polar Bear 

Waddles was a little Penguin who lived in Antarctica. Waddles was very curious and wanted to go find out about the world. He thought the only way he could do that was to swim to all the different parts of the world. So he packed his bags and set off. He didn't know where he was going but taking breaths at the surface he eventually got to the North Pole. But he didn't know that there was a polar bear there. When he saw the polar bear he ran to Santas Workshop. Santa gave him water guns. Waddles went out and shot water in the polar bears eyes. The polar bear couldn't see so Waddles dropped the guns and swam to Ireland. He went to Miss Bullocks house. What will he do there? 

The Story of Waddles

Once there was a cheeky penguin called Waddles. He lived in Antarctica then moved to Limerick with Miss Bullock. She came to school today and I saw Waddles. He is black and white and cute. We went out for PE and Waddles made up all the games. 

ME again

Me in my fancy clothes

I can't show you all the wonderful stories the humans wrote about me, Helen says I'd have to type all night to do that and I'm hungry. It's almost dinner time and I have raw fish waiting for me. Helen says I should try something new every day so today I tried Salad and honey. I might blog about that tomorrow and maybe share some more stories from the humans? Oh by the way Helen says I have to tell you that the humans are in first and second class in Limerick and would love to see who reads their stories about me. So say hi to them, I know they'll reading my new blog every week now! I hope I get to visit them again soon, they were nice humans.

Hello, I'm Waddles

Waddles is a penguin who recently moved to Limerick and and is getting used to living in Ireland. Ireland is very different to Antarctica where he is from. Waddles hopes to be able to write a blog for classes to enjoy and learn from! He's kindly agreed to be interviewed for his first blog post! He'd love to answer any questions you might have for him so please feel free to get in touch by leaving a comment or emailing Helen.

Name: Waddles
Nationality: Antarctican
Language spoken: English though I speak some Russian
Age: A penguin never shares their age, it's rude to ask
Where do you live: I've just moved to Ireland, I'm living in Limerick
Why? I wanted to go on an Adventure and Ireland seemed like fun, I also want to learn to speak Irish
Do you live alone? No I live with a teacher called Helen

There's me and Helen

Are you Helen's new pet? No way!! She's my pet, I look after her.
What's it like living with an Irish girl compared to life in Antartica? I've never lived with a human girl before but I like it, Helen is lovely but she does some strange things.
Such as what? Well she lives inside a house and not an igloo like other humans I know, she doesn't eat raw fish, she cooks her food which I think is really weird.
Have you tasted new food since moving to Limerick? Yes! Some of it is really weird and hot but others I really like. I'm still not used to eating cooked food though. But I do like pasta and cheese now and I tasted chocolate recently, I really like that!
So what is your favourite Chocolate: a Penguin bar of course
Do you have a favourite Movie: Happy Feet
Can you dance? Not as well as Happy Feet can but I try, I'd like to learn Irish Dancing
Do you have a favourite song: Here comes the Sun, the Beatles but I really like Ice Ice Baby too by Vanilla Ice
What do you miss about home? My parents and my Grandma, I also miss the snow a little.
There isn't much snow in Ireland....No there's not, there's  just a lot of rain and some wind but that's ok mostly. I'm looking forward to some sunshine.
So are we Waddles! We love the sun here! So I've heard and I'm looking forward to experiencing it, I'm really looking forward to trying ice cream too, I'm told it's cold like snow.
Sometimes vanilla ice cream even looks like snow. That sounds super delicious :) I can't wait to try it.
I've heard ice cream can even be chocolate too!
It can! WOW!! I think I'm going to like Ireland a lot!
What are your plans for living here? Well next week I'm meeting some of Helen's friends and she's bringing me on an adventure so I'm really excited about that! I'll take loads of photos for my new blog so you can all share too!

I'll be back soon, I must go get some fish and try to teach Helen how to eat fish properly, there's no need for fish fingers, after all fish don't have fingers!