I have to confess, its at this time of the year that I wish I was anywhere but Florida. I ventured out today on the hunt for leaves. Like, "I spy with my little eyes..." It will be a minute before the weather feels crisp and the leaves sprinkle the grass. Oh my, I long for the colorful trees. I begin to begrudge the season for stealing my sunshine and stretching the nocturnal hours until I experience the first hint of fall with scented fragrances, cinnamon broomsticks, pumpkin spice coffee, and apple week at school! Bring on the fall fun! This past week was a whirlwind. I'd love to take you back as we dove deep into fall themed fun while meeting learning objectives! I'm blessed to have the unique opportunity to work with some of the best kids. We are a title one school with a heart of gold! This group of little lovelies soak up everything I teach. We started our week with Apple of My Eye from A Year of Many Firsts. This differentiated packet provided the right amount of support for the range of abilities in my classroom. The real images provide the concrete example needed for all my English language learners. We started Monday with a Brainpop Jr video on Fall. I find showing these videos helps to build the necessary background. For only $8 each month, I have access to all educational videos. I promise, it's a steal! Following vocabulary lessons, I started a class KWL. To follow up, the kids were given apple foldable from Reagan's Apple Science Interactive Packet to record what they know and want to know. I'm certain my kids were hanging on to every word as I read the article in Lyndsy's packet. We had a lovely introduction to text features. The coordinating response allowed a platform to practice writing to a prompt in which our district given the week prior. Tuesday mimicked Monday with a new content focus. We started with a Brainpop Jr video on the plant life cycle. The entire video takes you through the life cycle of an apple from seed to fruit. Wednesday provided a new outlook for apple explorations! Science experiments, art projects, and apple activities, oh my! From Erica's Bohrer's Graftivity! See Charts Below. With a variety of apple books on hand, we worked in teams to read books, study illustrations, and sort fiction and non-fiction text. It was on this day that we created seasonal trees showing changes from winter to spring and summer to fall. By mid day, students gathered around my guided reading table eager to determine the effects of various liquids on apples. I love seeing my scientist examining changes using Falling Into First's Smart Apples unit. It was as this moment I heard one of my kids say, "This is the best week ever!"