Book Talk Tuesday

It's time again for Book Talk Tuesday!

Just today, I attended a workshop for "diving deep" into the Kansas College & Career Readiness Standards…that's Common Core to the rest of you:)
The Sunflower State LOVES to rename things!

I have to introduce you to these awesome kid-lit books recommended today by the presenters.
In the Read-Aloud session, the presenter talked about using fiction & nonfiction books hand-in-hand.

This idea is not necessarily new to me (or even you, I'm sure) but it was nice to hear an "expert" talk about it and give the go-ahead for this kind of practice!
Here are a couple of pairings she recommended:

Obviously, these would work well for many reading & writing standards, but these could also cover Social Studies and Science standards, and maybe even math if you got really creative:)

Use the nonfiction texts to front load information that your students will need to comprehend the fiction companion, or use the fiction text as a "hook" for delving deep into the nonfiction book.

What made me HUGELY enthused was hearing every.single.presenter talk about the importance of interconnectedness among the content areas.
Ideally, it would be lovely to get away from the "science block", "math block", "writer's workshop"…and move into a seamlessly flowing classroom day filled with all content areas pertaining/connecting to a theme.

Many of you do this already, probably.

I have liked the structure of designated times for each content…but I'm looking forward to mapping the curriculum more like the presenters described.
Is it sad I'm actually looking forward to planning??!

There were also 2 professional texts recommended that I wanted to share:

These were highly recommended by 2 of the presentations I attended today.
LOVE that these presenters encouraged mentor texts for writing (something we are all doing in our classrooms, right?) and using  picture books to introduce science explorations.

Can't wait to go back tomorrow and be inspired even more!
I also can't wait to see all of YOUR suggestions for reading through Mrs. Jump's linky.
If you haven't linked up already, go now!