Can I tell you a secret?

It's been a while since I posted and I will explain in a later post but today I want to tell the small humans a secret. A big huge massive secret. About me. 

Last weekend I was a scared penguin. 

There I said it. 

I don't think I've ever been scared of anything other than Mammy Penguin when she's super cross but that's a story for another day. 

I was terrified on Friday. I know I'm usually such a brave penguin, I left my home and moved to Ireland so I know I'm quite brave. 

But on Friday I saw this.....

A GIANT FOOTSTEP

And I was terrified, I've never seen a human with such a large foot, I thought it was a monster. I don't think I like monsters. They are scary and strange and feet that big must belong to the biggest monster ever! I was with my human Helen but she was no good and just laughed at me. Which by the way Helen is just mean, you shouldn't laugh at scared Penguins. 

Sorry Waddles....But it was really funny. 

I hate it when Helen pops into my blog and writes stuff, but at least she writes in blue so you know it's not me. 

Anyway I was terrified and it was about to get worse. The footstep belonged to a giant with a giant foot!!

It's a GIANT

HUGE isn't she?? I was almost screaming in terror and the meany pants human just kept laughing and going closer and closer to her. I wanted to hide. 

The giant was a granny, she was lovely but poor Waddles really was very afraid of her. 

GO AWAY HELEN!!!!!

The giant granny walked around Limerick all day, her giant feet stamping around and scaring me. I thought she was going to eat me. I don't want to be giant granny food!!! I tried to give her a penguin bar instead but did something very rude, she made a noise out of her bottom....Helen says I'm not allowed to do that so why can Granny? 

She was so scary. And even worse when she got into a weird giant chair. She took some humans onto her knee and kidnapped them. 

She didn't kidnap them, they were her helpers and she let them ride along on her chair Waddles....silly penguin!

Helen get off my website you bold human!! 

Granny's giant chair

I thought Granny was real but Helen told me she wasn't real, that she's a puppet and the humans dressed in red take care of her and help me move around with strings and stuff. 

I wasn't scared anymore. I'm not scared of a puppet. I'm only scared of real scary giant monsters. And Granny isn't a monster. 

But she is very bold. She made rude bum noises and made a mess on the floor, I don't think Limerick has a giant toilet big enough for her bottom...but I think she's very naughty to think the street is a bathroom!! Bad Granny! 

I did like it when she went to bed, she has a giant bed! She needed all her red helpers to help her into bed but she did look so cosy and comfy in there!

Go to bed Granny

Doesn't she look happy in bed? I love my bed and I think Granny loves her bed. It must have been exhausting walking around Limerick all day.

Sweet Dreams Granny 

I did learn something very important though, it's ok to be scared of stuff. I thought it was bad and that it meant I wasn't a brave penguin but Helen says being brave doesn't mean I'm not scared of anything it means doing something even though I'm scared. So even though Granny terrified me I stayed and watched her and once I learnt she wasn't real I wasn't afraid anymore. I think that's a really important lesson to learn and while I didn't like feeling scared I am glad I learnt it.

Spelling Bee Final week

I can't believe it's been two weeks since I got home and I haven't blogged, I feel very bold and I'm sure my human is annoyed with me for not blogging when she took me on a fantastic adventure around Ireland!!! I saw loads of places and we did loads of fun things but mostly we spelt words, big ones. 

Helen brought me to the Eason Spelling Bee final week so we went to Castlebar in Mayo for the Connacht final, a lovely small human from Galway won that one. I liked her. Then we drove to Belfast for the Ulster Final and a wee human called Amelia won there! Then we drove to Youghal in Cork for the Munster final and a boy human called Jack won there. Belfast to Youghal was a huge drive, I thought we'd never get there! Then we went to Carlow for the Leinster final and Keith from Louth won there. 

While in Mayo though I got to have a little play around with all the goodies when Helen wasn't looking! Have a look at my photos 

I won!!!!!

Here's me practicing my winners speech for the moment the Ryan Tubridy told the world I'd won. He must have forgotten though because he thinks that girl won. Silly Tubs

Camera Penguin

I think I'd like to work in TV when I grow up a little, I could be a camera penguin and run the TV cameras and make sure everyone sees me. Helen says though the cameramen and women aren't seen on TV but I think she's silly because I'd be in charge of the camera so everyone could see if I wanted! And I want!!

I'm a Tubridy

If the TV thing doesn't work out I could go into Radio, if my human can do it I can! Anything she can do I can better :) I like the bright orange Microphone thing too, it matches my nose! I'm well able to talk and I think I'd be fantastic at interviews, I interviewed Julia lately and I was great!

I may not be tall enough though

All Ireland Final??

Ok so I didn't really win the Connacht final but I think I was through to the All Ireland final, either way I have the winning Cup as you can see! It's just the right size for a little penguin like me! 

I really enjoyed my Adventure but I think I could do a much better job of calling out the big words than my human did! I can say them all too I was practicing! 

In the end, Amelia from Belfast won the All Ireland, so she got to keep the cup :( which made me really sad :( but Amelia was lovely. She spelt a very hard work V-E-R-M-I-C-E-L-L-I which is a thin strand of pasta or chocolate on a cake. It's tasty. But then again I do like chocolate :) The Tubridy yoke was all excited and my human wasn't much better. They were squealing and squeaking like a pair of noisy penguin babies! Sigh she's so embarrassing

Next time I'll blog some embarrassing stories about Helen!

Dear Daddy Penguin

Dear Dad

I'm here with the human, Helen watching that World Cup thing the humans are obsessed with. Well most humans are, thankfully mine isn't! She doesn't seem to care about it at all which is great for me cause she brought me shopping for a present for you! 

Ireland is nice, very green and no snow. Human says there's never snow in June so I should stop looking for it every morning but I think she might be lying to me. It has to snow right? My human is very strange, she doesn't eat fish but eats a lot of something called chicken. I don't mind chicken but I'd rather have a good fish! Just don't tell grandma penguin I tasted weird food, you know what she's like when she hears about foreign food! 

I've discovered a new love for a thing called chocolate. It's brown and tastes delicious! Humans love it too! My favourite kind is one called a penguin bar! 

It's really yummy! I could eat them all day (with fish) but the human says I'd get fat! I don't think she knows that I need my fat to stay warm! 

Anyway, my human isn't all bad. She brings me on adventures and to see strange things. We went to the zoo in Berlin and to a spelling bee. It's fun! This week she says she's bringing me on a surprise trip! 

Oh in Ireland it's Father's Day! That's a special day where the humans celebrate great dads, my human got her dad a present so I got you one too! Here's a packet of penguin bars! Especially for you! 

Now don't say I never get you anything! I'm a great little penguin! 

Say hi to mom and grandma and all the family! It's fish time here so I can't write all night, and you know how difficult it is for us penguins to type! 

Love you Dad

Love your Waddles 

XxxX

My interview with Julia

Last week I was a lucky little Penguin and I got to chat to a really cool human. I say chat but really I mean interview, an interview is lots of questions to learn something. I felt like a news reporter. I looked her up online to see what she does and then I made a list of questions to ask Julia (thats the woman I was interviewing) and I made notes and got myself ready.

Waddles: Good morning Miss Skinner 
(Helen says its polite to say Miss Skinner because she's a grown up and I should be respectful because I'm interviewing her)

Julia, Me and Catherine

Julia: Good morning Waddles, I hope you slept well and are ready for a busy day?
Waddles: I'm really excited to be interviewing you Miss Skinner, may I call you Julia?
Julia: Julia will be fine, we are friends after all
Waddles: Thanks Julia! We are friends, I love having nice human friends! I slept really well thank you but I don't think my human did, she's really grumpy! I'm afraid to go driving with her because she's so sleepy :(
Julia: I'm not sleeping well at the moment either, I have too many things on my mind. I need to get some of them off my to do list. Do you have one of those? 
Waddles: What's a to do list?
Julia: You write down the jobs/things you need to get done, so for instance on yours you could have interview Julia!
Waddles: Ah a fish list!! Penguins have fish lists of all things they must do which always has fish on it! 

Waddles Fish List
Catch Fish in Tesco
Eat Fish
Interview Julia
Eat more fish
Drive to Dublin with human
Eat more fish
Fish
Fish
Fish
Fish
Sleep

Julia: Of course, silly me! I must get into the fish zone. I'm having prawns for my supper!
Waddles: Oh I like prawns but the shells are tricky for me because I don't have fingers like humans
Julia: Mine don't have shells. Mr Skinner puts them in pasta, he always cooks supper on Fridays and we have pasta. I love Fridays!
Waddles: What's pasta? I think I'd like anything with fish in it! 
Julia: Waddles, I think pasta might be a bit heavy for you, it tastes lovely but might stay in the bottom of your tummy and make you sink, you're such a little Penguin!!
Waddles: Oh no!!! I don't want to sink!! :(
Julia: Exactly, better stick to fish!
Waddles: I love fish! I learnt about ice cream last week, I want to try that next! 

Julia: Be careful because it's very cold! Mr Skinner says hi to you and Helen
Waddles: Helen says hi too, and that she likes pasta too! You'll have competition now, Helen cooks weird things, she never has fish and might need Mr Skinner to cook for her
Julia: He cooks pasta and roasts very well but doesn't do much else tell her. 

Waddles: Helen says she likes roasts too. I think Helen is very silly. 
Julia: Now Waddles, you mustn't be rude about humans. That isn't nice even if Helen is silly. 
Waddles: But she's my pet human. 
Julia: Yes even so...you must be polite otherwise she may take you to the zoo and leave you there
Waddles: OH NO!! I liked the zoo but I don't want to stay there, the penguins all spoke German and I like my adventures. 

Julia: Well I'm going on an adventure and may see some of your relations! I'm going to see the zoo in Singapore and Sydney. I'm also going on a night safari but I expect the penguins will be asleep then. 
Waddles: If they have sense they'll be asleep but I'll ask them to pop out and say hello to my friends
Julia: That's very kind of you Waddles

Waddles: You know Julia, I read lots of your 100 Word Challenge posts last week and I really liked them. Could you tell me about them? 
Julia: Right it's very easy really. I set a prompt each week of either a picture, part of a sentence or a few individual words. The children use the prompt and 100 words to produce a piece of their best creative writing. 
This is popped onto their class blog and then linked to my blog, where magic happens. Do you know about magic? 

Mr Skinner, me and Julia

Waddles: I know about Penguin Magic, it's where a penguin pulls a fish or tiny penguin out of a glacier. 
Julia: Yes magic is wonderful 
Waddles: But why don't the small humans only get 100 words to use? 
Julia: Well by making it 100 words the children have to think hard about the words they chose. They have to SELECT the right words. Imagine you had lots of fish but you could only eat one, You would have to make a choice and pick the best one!

Waddles: Oh that's super clever! Do the small humans make good word choices? 
Julia: Sometimes they need practice like I do with some technology. That is why they take part as often as they can. Want to know what the magic bit is??

Waddles: YES PLEASE!!
Julia: Well, when they link to 100wc.net there are big humans who comment, like you and Helen did last week. The comments make the small humans feel proud of their work. What do you feel proud of Waddles? 
Waddles: I'm proud of my blog and my tweets! And sometimes I'm proud of my human when she does nice things! I really liked reading their work, made me have a funny warm feeling in my tummy, Helen says it's cause they were well written and really clever. I think it's because I was hungry

Julia: No no no no! Waddles! If you're going to become a literary Penguin you are going to have to keep your thoughts about hunger and fish at bay!
Waddles: But I'm a penguin, I'm always hungry!
Julia: Anyway, the small humans, you know they're called children?? The children love getting comments, it makes them happy!

Julia: Are you going to get a Facebook page to talk to your penguin family?
Waddles: I don't know, Helen says no but I got a Twitter when she said I couldn't have one...
Julia: You sound like a very spoilt Penguin Waddles. Don't forget to say please and thank you
Waddles: I'm sometimes a little bold, but I don't mean to be :(
Julia: Maybe we could let the children visit your blog too
Waddles: OOOH I'd like that, they could read and ask questions and I'd answer like a sensible penguin. 

100wc.net

Julia: Do you have any other questions?
Waddles: Why do you do 100wc?  Is it because it's fun?
Julia: Well, I had a blog that nobody visited and I was very sad about that. So I thought I could do something fun with children so my blog wouldn't be lonely. The children were so keen that I set up another blog for 100 words. It does take a lot of time because I have to organise a lot of humans to comment, tell schools when the link doesn't work and post the prompts. 
Waddles: Aw poor blog, it's not nice to be lonely but now you've loads of small humans to keep you company and they write brilliant things for you to read too! You must be really busy though, don't you have time for catching fish?
Julia: No I don't have time for fishing :( I do have time for coffee though
Waddles: I don't like coffee, you should have fish instead!

Waddles: Thanks Julia, it was lovely interviewing you, you're a lovely human! Mind your beak, even though Helen says you don't have a beak!

Julia: Bye Waddles, talk soon :)

I had great fun interviewing Julia, she's super cool like me! And I love the 100 Word Challenge, I think I'd like to write one some day!

Don't forget to tweet me! @WaddlesPPenguin

My Day at Excited with the human

I was the only penguin in attendance at the Excited Learning Festival last weekend but that didn't stop me! I rocked the place! I sat with the Helen human and some of her friends, they all thought I was unreal and super cool and wanted photos with me! I'm famous! I like being famous, it means everyone knows who I am! I met my friend Minister Ciaran Cannon again and this time we really did take a photo!

Me and Ciaran Cannon, Junior Minister of Education and minder of schools

There were some really weird giant puppets around Excited too, they were super freaky! I was chatting to one called Sheila and she seemed really nice until we had a little fight about fish, surely everyone knows that eating fish fingers is just silly because fish don't have any fingers???

Sheila tried to EAT ME!!!

And the next thing I knew I was in her mouth and she was trying to eat me!! Doesn't she know that you can't eat Penguins?? I'm not dinner! I'm not tasty! I'm a penguin, I'm a visitor to Ireland and I don't need to be eaten by a giant puppet girl! I was screaming for help because I was really really scared and nobody could hear me because I was in this giant mouth and my screams were muffled! I tried to fight my way out of it and I struggled, I wriggled, I squirmed and I pushed my way out...

But in the end I won

I won in the end, I got free and jumped away! I landed on her nose though but I think it's ok because she wasn't hurt and I wasn't eaten! 

But hang on!! Who took the photos of me and Sheila??? I blame Helen......silly human didn't even try to help me! I must give out to her. 

Look at all the lovely people I met!

I loved meeting all the teachers there, they were really lovely and they all knew who I was so they all wanted to take photos with me! I'm famous! I really liked the Lego guys! They gave me a Lego duck to make and I made loads of them! It was really fun! All my ducks were in a row together! The Lego guys wanted a photo with me too! I am that cool! I think working with Lego all day would be a great job, maybe they need a Penguin to work with them? I bet they don't have a penguin employed in Lego already? And a Penguin as cool as I am? I am one of a kind :)

Me and the Lego guys

Me and all my ducks in a row

On Saturday we went to Dublin Castle again for more Excited stuff and this time I got to meet some small humans! Oh I also met some medium humans (Helen says they're teenagers) and they were all talking about education and technology stuff. They really liked me. I think they liked my blog and my tweets too! Some of them were tweeting me and telling me how cute I am! I also met Lord David Puttnam, he's a producer and makes movies but he's also a very important person in education and believes Education is the most important thing in the world, I agree with him. He has been in charge of loads of different stuff and even set up an award for brilliant teachers. I'm like a teacher, maybe some day I'll get an award! I'd like an award for best penguin teacher in the world! Would you vote for me?

David Puttnam, me and Helen the human

I really enjoyed the Excited Learning Festival, I even liked spending the day with my human Helen, she took care of me and helped me take loads of photos with all sorts of people! I think it's really important for teachers to learn from each other and from their students. I think Excited helped my human to see how much the small humans like and need technology in school, it's really easy to use and makes learning fun! I love using technology too, it helps me blog and tweet! 

Don't forget to tweet me @WaddlesPPenguin  I love making friends on twitter and chatting to classes and small humans!

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!