All month the ReaderKidZ have been posting about OUR NATURAL WORLD and we want to make sure teachers and librarians know about an amazing new website called, The Nonfiction Minute. With the roll-out of Common Core and interest at the state and district level in increasing student exposure to nonfiction, this site is a goldmine!

Each post includes a short nonfiction piece about a fascinating topic, along with photos and illustrations on the subject. The author of each post also reads that day’s entry, so teachers with Smart Boards can pull up the site and have students follow along as the author reads the day’s “nonfiction minute.”

Both a wonderful tool for teachers and a fascinating source of nonfiction anecdotes and facts, The Nonfiction Minute could easily become part of a classroom morning routine.

To whet your appetite, here are the links to two of this week’s posts:

When a Jet Wore a Costume by Amy Nathan about a small jet plane that wore fake propellers during test flying at Wright Field. And the test pilot? The first American woman to pilot a jet aircraft!

Mary Makes a Monster by Cheryl Harness about some of the ideas that influenced the writing of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.