Table of contents for October 2023 in Chickadee

If there is one sure sign of fall, it’s the mighty pumpkin. This squash can be seen decorating everything from doorways to dessert plates. Check out 10 cool facts about pumpkins on page 8. Another symbol of fall is awesome autumn leaves! Find crafts inspired by nature on page 14. And of course, we can’t talk about this season without mentioning Halloween. We’ve got a recipe, puzzles, and stories to get you in the mood for trick-or-treating. Have a great fall, everyone! Find Me Inside Answers page 32.…

1 Pumpkins Are Squashes Often called winter squashes, pumpkins are part of the gourd family, which also includes cucumbers. There are many varieties of pumpkins, with names like cotton candy, baby boos, and sweet dumpling. Pumpkins range in size from ones that can fit in your hand to ones that need to be moved with a forklift! 2 They Go Way Back Pumpkins have been around for about 9,000 years! The oldest pumpkin seeds ever found were discovered in Mexico and are believed to be from 7000 to 5550 BCE. Pumpkins grow on every continent, except Antarctica. 3 Farming Fun The Haudenosaunee Peoples developed a way to grow pumpkins, corn, and beans together. Called the Three Sisters, these crops help each other grow. The pumpkin leaves give shade to the…

You’ll need: • tortilla wrap • filling: your favourite sandwich items • decorations: cheese slices, veggies, olives, gherkins, seaweed sheets What to do: 1 Roll up a wrap full of your favourite sandwich fillings. Ask a grown-up to help you cut it in half. 2 Use cheese, veggies, olives, gherkins, and seaweed to decorate your wrap to look like a monster! Parents: Share with us! mailto:chickadee@owlkids.com https://www.facebook.com/owlkids https://twitter.com/owlkids?lang=en https://www.instagram.com/owlkidspublishing/?hl=en See page 31. Just Joking :) What do you call a pickle on sale? Asweet dill!…

How is glass made? Charlotte Glass is mostly made from a mineral in sand called silica (say: SIL-ih-ka). To make glass, silica and a few other minerals, are heated to a super-high temperature until they melt. Then the liquid is poured into a mould, where it cools and hardens into glass. Used glass containers can also be melted down and recycled into new ones. Go, glass, go! Why is blood red and not blue? Neil Blood is red because of a protein called hemoglobin. This protein contains iron, which absorbs oxygen and delivers it throughout the body. When the iron in hemoglobin absorbs oxygen, it turns blood red. But when you look at your own arms or hands, the blood in your veins does appear to be blue or green,…

Hang It Up You’ll need: • fallen leaves or leaf shapes cut from paper • paint or chalk markers • string • stick • tape What to do: 1 Decorate the leaves with paint or markers. Let them dry. 2 Tape strings to the back of all the leaves. 3 Tie the other ends of the strings to a stick. 4 Tie another string to the stick so you can hang up your leaf masterpiece! Fall in a Jar You’ll need: • small jar with lid • construction paper (fall colours) • small stick (optional) • 250 mL (1 cup) water • 15 mL (1 tbsp.) clear corn syrup • scissors What to do: 1 If including a small stick in your jar, glue it to the underside of the…

You’ll need: • 500 mL (2 cups) cornstarch • 250 mL (1 cup) water • large bowl • food colouring (optional) What to do: 1 Pour the cornstarch into the bowl. 2 Slowly add the water to the cornstarch. Add a few drops of food colouring if you want. 3 Mix it with your hands until it feels thick. 4 Play with your oobleck! What happens? Dr. Zed Explains The strange mixture is called oobleck! It is both a solid and a liquid. Cornstarch doesn’t dissolve in the water. Instead, the cornstarch grains float and tangle up when you squish them. Play with oobleck and you’ll see! Four Ways to Play with Oobleck! Roll it into a ball! Squeeze it! Slowly dip your finger in it! Punch it! Clean Up!…

Awesome Armour Pangolins have cool built-in suits of armour! They have tough scales that cover all of their bodies except their stomachs and faces. To protect those parts, pangolins roll up into a ball. Even fierce predators like lions can’t bite into their scales. PANGOLIN Fave Foods Pangolins eat insects such asants, termites, and water beetles. Size They can be as short as one ruler oras long as four. Family Matters There are eight differentspecies of pangolins: Chinese, Sunda, Philippine, Indian, white-bellied, giant, ground, and black-bellied. Strong Scent Pangolins spray a stinky liquid from glands near theirtails to scare away predators or mark their territory. Stay away! No Dentist Needed These scaly creatures don’t have teeth. Instead, they swallow small stones to help grind up food in their stomachs. Shy Creatures Pangolins…

Frank didn’t want to be one thing for Halloween. He wanted to be everything. That’s what he wanted to be when he grew up, too. A scientist, a baker, and a magician. A scuba diver, an acrobat, and a dragon. Frank’s dreams were as big as mountains and as many as stars. Someday, he’d be everything. Until then, Halloween was his only chance. His friends, on the other hand, had their costumes planned for months. This puzzled Frank. On the day when he could be anything, how could he choose just one? Halloween doesn’t have any rules, Frank figured. And even if it did, he had never read them. Every morning, he added something new to his costume. Alligator socks. Spaceship boots. Zebra stripes. Werewolf fangs. Each day, his costume…