In the May issue, Gary Barwin wrote a bunch of awesome and funny pet poems. My friend Natalia wrote a pet poem, too! She wrote about her bird, Ramona, and shared it with me.

Here it is:

Pet Poem

Home from school

And off for a walk

With my pet bird

She likes to squawk

Ramona flies

Around the yard

She sees our cat

She stands on guard

My arm is her perch

And from there she stares

Her feathers part

In the brisk, fresh air

She basks in the sun

And has her fun

Then kisses my arm

Signaling she’s done

We head inside

So she can rest

Ramona, my pet,

You’re simply the best!

***

Thanks for sharing your poem with us, Natalia!  Do you have a poem you’d like to share with us? Email chickadeeblog@owlkids.com or leave a comment below.

Talk soon,

Mandy

Editor of chickaDEE

This Sunday is Mother’s Day! Treat your mom to a homemade bouquet of flowers… with a twist!

You’ll need:

• Coloured construction paper
• Glue stick
• Photos of you
• Scissors
• Tape
• Pipe cleaners for stems
• Vase

What to do:

1. Cut the construction paper into flower shapes.

2. Cut photos into circles. Glue your photos into the centre of the flower.

3. Tape pipe cleaners to the back of the flowers.

4. Put the flowers into a vase and surprise your mom!

From everyone at chickaDEE, Happy Mother’s Day to all the awesome moms out there!!!

Have a great weekend,

Mandy

Editor of chickaDEE

Photo credit: Kendra Brown

We’re always looking for pictures of you and your pets to publish in Arf’s Pet Patrol. If you’d like to send us a picture or have a question about your pet, here are the details below:

Arf’s Pet Patrol

c/o chickaDEE Magazine

10 Lower Spadina Avenue, Suite 400

Toronto, ON

M5V 2Z2

or email us at chickaDEE@owlkids.com

Looking forward to meeting your pets!

Talk soon,

Mandy

Editor of chickaDEE

Hi readers,

Tomorrow is the big Owlkids Day @ TCAF. There are so many exciting events happening, including a presentation by Max Finder Mystery writer, Craig Battle, and illustrator, Ramon Perez! Check out the full schedule of events below. The doors open at 9am and it goes until 5pm.

Don’t forget to visit us at the Toronto Reference Library (789 Yonge Street) too where we’ll have a fun photo booth, free sample magazines and other fun stuff. Hope to see you there!

Mandy

Editor of chickaDEE

Do you live in the Toronto area and do you love comics? Then you’ll want to check out the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) this weekend! The event is happening at the Toronto Reference Library on May 5th (9am to 5pm) and 6th (11am to 5pm). Come visit us at our table and you’ll get a chance to meet some of the illustrators that have appeared in the pages of Chirp, chickaDEE and OWL Magazine!

Saturday, May 5
10:00 – 1:00 Caroline Versteeg – OWL Magazine designer
11:00 – 11:30 Willow Dawson – illustrator
1:00 – 2:00 Patricia Storms – Pirate and the Penguin, Chirp and Friends Comic
2:00 – 3:00 Roslyn Schwartz, The Vole Brothers Comic
4:00 – 5:00 CTON, CTON’s Super A-maze-ing Year of Crazy Comics!

Sunday, May 6
1:00 – 2:00 Jason Kieffer, Owlkids
2:00 – 3:00 Steven Charles Manale, The Adventures of Chick and Dee Comic

There is also a special Owlkids Day at St. Paul’s on Bloor from 10am to 5pm. For more information on this event and other stuff happening at TCAF, check out the link here.

Come and say HI! Hope to see you there!

Mandy

Editor of chickaDEE

Happy Friday to all of you! I was just thinking about how I can’t wait to get outside this weekend and enjoy the sunny weather!

Check out one of the ways chickaDEE reader, Julia, spends her time outside.

It’s Julia and her friend playing a game that they call, ‘Sokey’. This game is a combination of hockey and soccer.

Very cool! Thanks for sharing this drawing with us, Julia!

What’s your favourite thing to do outside? Leave a comment below.

Well that’s all for now, readers.

Have a great weekend!

Melissa

Assistant Editor of chickaDEE

In honour of Astronomy Week, here are 10 far-out facts from Did You Know?

1. Earth is one of the eight planets that circle the Sun. The Sun and these planets make up a tiny part of the universe known as a solar system!
2. On MERCURY, one day is as long as 176 Earth days.
3. VENUS is the hottest planet.
4. EARTH is the only planet to have living beings on it.
5. MARS is covered in rusty red dust.
6. JUPITER is so big that it could fit 1,300 Earths inside of it!
7. The rings of SATURN are made of ice and rocks.
8. URANUS has 27 moons.
9. NEPTUNE is the windiest planet.
10. PLUTO used to be one of the planets in our solar system, but now scientists call it a “dwarf planet” instead.

Do you have any far-out facts you’d like to share? Leave a comment below!

Space out!

Mandy

Editor of chickaDEE

If you’re an animal lover like I am, you’ll definitely want to check out Born to be Wild (available today on Blu-ray & DVD).

This movie takes viewers to two different animal shelters; one for orangutans in Borneo’s amazing rainforests and another for elephants, located in the savannahs of Kenya. The orangutans and elephants are very young, and have been brought to the shelter because they’ve lost their mothers. It’s up to the shelters’ workers to become the animals’ new moms, and give them the love and care that they’ll need to survive when they go back to living in the wild one day.

Here are some things I noticed about the movie.

1. This movie will make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Workers have to care for the baby animals just like a mother orangutan or mother elephant would. This means sleeping beside them, feeding them, washing them and playing with them! How would you like to cuddle with a baby elephant or orangutan? I know I would!

2. The scenery is amazing. The beautiful landscapes of Borneo and Kenya will have you glued to the screen.

3. There are some sad parts, like when workers have to rescue baby animals from tricky situations.

I hope you enjoy this movie as much as I did! Leave a comment below and let me know what you thought!

I’ll talk to you soon,

Melissa

Assistant Editor of chickaDEE

Look what I got in the mail! It’s a TIFF Kids International Film Festival program!

If you’re in the Toronto area, you can head over to the TIFF Bell Lightbox from now until April 22nd to catch cool kids films from all around the world and participate in some pretty awesome events and activities.

Here are some highlights:

• Check out the TIFF Kids digiPlaySpace. This is an interactive space where you can do all sorts of movie-related things, like play with a green screen!

• Look for The National Ballet of Canada’s Tutu Project. On April 14 and 15, visitors can use markers to draw on film. The film will be woven together to make a tutu and you can see the final result on April 22 at the Lightbox.

• Go to a Dance Party! On Saturday, April 21 at 3:30, one of the movie theatres will be transformed into a Kidz Bop Video Dance Party. Don’t forget your dancing shoes.

• Of course, don’t forget the tons and tons of movies you can see. Get a full list of film by clicking HERE.

Are you and your family planning on checking out the festival? Leave a comment below!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mandy

Editor of chickaDEE

It’s National Sibling Day and to celebrate, here’s a famous video of one of the funniest sibling moments ever!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

Charlie thought he was being pretty funny, huh?

Do you have a funny sibling story? Share with us in the comment section below!

Talk soon,

Mandy

Editor of chickaDEE