The Royal Winter Fair in Toronto!

Hi Readers,

If you live in the Greater Toronto area, the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair is back!

From super dogs to petting farms to horse competitions, there’s something for everyone.

The SuperDogs show is full of pups running, jumping, and doing fun tricks, and the petting farm has bunnies, goats, and my favourite, llamas!

But the biggest draw of the winter fair by far is the horses. There are horse braiding workshops, competitions, and a rodeo. You can also watch some of the best riders compete in horse jumping and rodeo events like barrel racing and bull riding.

For more information on the Royal Winter Fair check out their website at: http://www.royalfair.org/

Keep an eye on the chickaDEE blog later this week where we will be posting some photos of our visit to the Royal Winter Fair. Cannot wait!

Maybe we’ll see you there! The fair runs until November 11th.

Ashley

Editorial Assistant of chickaDEE

Happy Halloween!

From all of us here at chickaDEE Magazine, have a safe and happy Halloween!

What are you going as for Halloween? Send us your pictures at chickadeeblog@owlkids.com

The chickaDEE Team

Deadline is tomorrow: chickaDEE and OWL’s WWF Contest

Hi Readers!

The contest deadline for chickaDEE and OWL’s WWF Contest is tomorrow, so hurry up and send in those entries!

Owlkids and WWF want to send YOU and a family member to Churchill, Manitoba to see polar bears in the wild.

Contest details can be found HERE.

Good luck in the contest!

The chickaDEE Team

Record Breaking Jack-O’-Lanterns

Hey Readers!

Over the weekend, people in Highwood, Illinois gathered to break the world record of lighting the most jack-o’-lanterns!

Families carved pumpkins of all shapes and sizes, each with personal and cool designs. In the end, more than 32,000 jack-o’-lanterns were lit in one place, passing the current world record of more than 30,000, set in 2006.

Check out these pics of the event:

Photos courtesy of: http://highwoodpumpkinfest.com

Happy ALMOST Halloween!

Natalia

Editor of chickaDEE

chickaDEE Exclusive: Chris Tougas Interview

Hi chickaDEE Readers!

Author Chris Tougas recently talked to chickaDEE about the writing process. Chris wrote the fiction story “Gotta Fly” in the October buggy issue of chickaDEE. His story was so funny, as were the characters. Here’s what Chris had to say about it:

Q: Is it hard to write a funny story?

A: I like humourous writing because humour usually has a punch line or pay-off.  I usually find an idea that excites me and then think of how to wrap the story up in a rewarding way. After that, it’s a matter of writing the meat of the story – the middle. If I have a strong idea and a good ending, the writing usually happens quite easily.

Q: What do you need to know before writing and illustrating a story?

A: I usually spend a day or two researching the subject matter of my stories before I start a project. In the case of “Gotta Fly”, I did a lot of of reading about both spiders and flies and found out all sorts of interesting things. But when it came time to write the story, I decided to leave some those fun things out in favour of just writing a fun story. It became less about the spiders and flies and more about two characters who have very different approaches to life.

Those are some great writing tips! Thanks Chris!

Until next time,

Natalia

Editor of chickaDEE