It’s about time! I absolutely love this time of year. Who wouldn’t love the different colors of the fall foliage(image left)? The green, orange, brown, red, and yellow colors of the leaves all are brightening up the ground where we walk. I love driving upstate to all the different harvest fests to experience the changing of the seasons.
There are so many exciting things to do in autumn. In preparation for the upcoming holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving, families enjoy cooking their own desserts for the family get-togethers. In my family, it is a tradition to go apple-picking and get at least three bushels of apples. After apple-picking, we all head back to the house and make an easy two dozen pies and give them out to different family members and friends. This is a great way to bond with the family and to enjoy a day out in the beautiful cool weather.

Vocabulary-

fall foliage- changing of the leaves
harvest fests- festivals during the fall season
autumn- fall season
Halloween- holiday where children dress up
Thanksgiving- holiday meant for giving thanks
get-togethers- gathering of many people
tradition- a continuing pattern of something
apple-picking- activity of gathering apples
bushels- a large amount of something

Cloze Exercise-

1. Just wait until you see the different colors of the ___________________.
2. Another name for the season of fall is ________________________.
3. The holiday that people give thanks for what they have is _____________________.
4. Around the holiday season families plan many holiday ______________________ with extended family.
5. The best time to go __________________ is in early autumn.
6. There are a lot of apples in a ___________________.
7. Children love ____________________ because they get to dress-up in costumes of their favorite characters.
8. One of my favorite family ____________________ is going apple-picking.
9. At various __________________________ they have different foods and drinks of the season.

Grammar Point-

One form of adjectives are words that describe nouns. In this passage adjectives serve to describe the fall season. Your task is to add an adjective to make the following phrases more interesting.

1. The __________ house

2. A __________ zebra

3. The ___________ car

Create 3 of your own sentences using as many adjectives as possible in each sentence.

Everyone is Getting Married

When girls are young they play dress-up and pretend. As they get older they plan their whole wedding. I was never one of those girls that had their wedding planned before they met the guy they were going to spend the rest of their life with. I think the vision is different depending on the groom, and call me old-fashioned but I think the groom should have some say, it is his day too! Whereas some girls plan their whole wedding and just tell the man to show up that day.
Why the talk about tying the knot? My dad just got married in August (photo of me at my dad's wedding on right) and my sister is getting married in November, the day before Thanksgiving, and I am her Maid of Honor. I guess you can say the topic has been brought up a significant amount in my family. The bridal party and I just threw her surprise bridal shower at the end of August. My sister was so surprised; it was great! We planned a bunch of games and everyone enjoyed themselves. There were a lot of girls to help out with the planning because there are 9 brides maids.
I am looking forward to telling you more about the upcoming wedding. If anyone has any pointers for me as the Maid of Honor please feel free to share them.




Vocabulary:

pretend-(verb) to make believe
wedding- (noun) the ceremony of marrying
groom- (noun) the husband of the bride
old- fashioned- (adjective) having a taste of an earlier time
tying the knot- getting married
Thanksgiving- (noun) a day set to give thanks to God
Maid of Honor- (noun) unmarried woman who attends to the bride
significant- (adjective) more than most




Cloze Exercise:

1. The children were going to ______________ that they were astronauts going to the moon.
2. My sister’s _____________________ is on November 25, where she will marry Shawn.
3. The bride and __________________ will take many pictures the day of their wedding.
4. Times have changed from the mermaid style wedding dresses, and have gone back to a more _____________________ look to the big puffed out dresses.
5. A slang phrase for getting married is to say that the couple is _____________________.
6. A holiday known for giving thanks to God and the ones you love is ____________________.
7. The _________________________ at a wedding is in charge of making sure the bride has everything she needs.
8. There are a _________________________ amount of guests at the wedding, there are over 300 guests.




Grammar Point:
Have you ever been to a wedding? What are some things you saw at the wedding or that were in weddings of different cultures? Write down your thoughts in an organized paragraph.