Integrating Reading And Science With Severe Weather

The school year restarts, the weather turns wild, and our schedules fill faster than a radar screen during a storm. We’re leaning into a smarter way to teach: integrating reading and science through a focused study on severe weather so every minute pulls double duty. From thunderstorms to hurricanes, we use clear, kid-friendly texts to teach main idea, text features, vocabulary in context, and questioning—while giving students concrete safety steps that lessen anxiety and build confidence.

We walk through how to structure a short severe weather reader so it aligns with standards and still feels human. That means building sections on watches vs warnings, lightning safety, tornado tips, and flood awareness, then layering close reads and partner talk for evidence gathering. Along the way, we open space for feelings: drills can be scary, and kids need words for fear, routines for safety, and practice showing empathy to communities facing storms different from their own. We also tackle author’s purpose and bias, using real passages to show how word choice and structure shape understanding and influence.

If your region sees snow and ice, we turn that gap into inquiry with a simple research blueprint students can follow—definition, formation, risks, safety—so they practice nonfiction skills while expanding the class weather map. And because flu season and admin pop-ins are real, we share how to build reliable sub plans that keep learning moving: a tight reading sequence, a text-feature hunt, scaffolded questions, and a quick-write on safety tips. It’s all about intentional routines that reduce stress and make room for the conversations that matter.

Want the materials we mention? We’re linking the Severe Weather Reader, plus ready-to-use January and February sub plans that blend literacy and science. If this approach helps you breathe easier on stormy days, follow the show, share it with a teammate, and leave a quick review so more teachers can find calm in the chaos.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

Severe Weather Reader

Chapters

• 0:00 Framing The Topic And Goals
• 1:44 New Year Context And Priorities
• 3:24 Why Severe Weather Matters For Kids
• 5:35 Drills, Anxiety, And Safety Talk
• 8:19 Building A Severe Weather Reader
• 10:23 Teaching Standards Through Nonfiction

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to One Tired Teacher, episode 277: Stormy Weather, How to Fit in Reading, Science, Subplans without losing your mind. So today we're talking all about integrating science and reading. We're talking about weather. We're talking about making sure we've got our subplans dusted off because this is the time for flu and sickness. And it's, you know, it's just one of those days. And sometimes you also need to take a little break yourself. I know you just got back from break, but sometimes just knowing that we have a break at the end of the month or we're going to take a day off at the end of January can actually get us to that point. So I want you to be prepared just in case. Also, this is a time where admin is walking around and we want to have all of our ducks in a row. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Hope you stick around.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04

Welcome to One Tired Teacher. And even though she may need a nap, this teacher is ready to wake up and speak her truth about the trials and treasures of teaching. Here she is, wide awake. Wait, she's not asleep right now, is she? She she is awake, right? Okay. From Trina Debori Teaching and Learning, your host, Trina Debori.

SPEAKER_00: 1:27

Hey, so once again, happy new year. If you didn't, if you weren't listening last week, I was talking all about back to school, not back to chaos. So hopefully you got a chance to check that out. And it's officially 2026, which is crazy. So today we are talking about severe weather, we're talking about reading and science integrated, and we're talking about subplans. I know that's crazy. Like subplans already. We just got back from a break, but you know, this is the time of year. We've got, you know, we've got the flu, we've got flu season, we've got storm drills, we have, you know, maybe stormy weather, snow storms, a lot of rain situations in other areas. And and and you know, it's just that time. And we want to also be prepared for that admin pop-in so that we do not have teacher panic. So let's jump in. So, first of all, you know, it's been, I don't, we don't have where I am in Florida, we don't have lar obviously snowstorms. In fact, we did get snow last year up in the upper part um in Tallahassee and areas like that that are closer to Georgia. And it was really exciting. Like we're like, oh my gosh, we've got snow. And if you're in Michigan or you're, you know, in Canada, you're like, I don't even want to hear about your excitement over just a few inches of snow. But, you know, it's all relative because I often I don't want to hear when people are hot at 80 degrees. So I think it just depends depends where you are and where you're coming from. So we're not gonna hit massive snowstorms in Florida, but we do have lots of weather issues, and severe weather can be a really, you know, a really relevant topic to discuss with kids. It also leads to something that I'm I'd never really considered before. And that is even using it as like a launch pad to discussing feelings of fear or feelings of safety or empathy, just making space for discussions with kids so that they can kind of work through things that are on their mind. You know, we do things like, you know, in my state, we do hurricane drills or tornado drills because we have these kinds of severe weather situations. And so we, you know, always feel like we need to have kids prepared. Although sometimes I think these kinds of drills can be really frightening for kids and can cause anxiety. I mean, I remember having kids, some kids that would cry sometimes and and like having to like scooch over to them and rub their back a little bit and like tell them it was gonna be okay and that we were practicing and that we were safe. And I got to tell kids that we were in an intern internal, like we were on we were on the second floor, but I did say we were in an interior room where we didn't have any windows. I'm like, we are in the safest spot. I mean, you do whatever you can to to like allow them to feel safe, but also to practice necessary procedures. But I I just I sometimes I'm like, I think we overdo it, and it it's not that difficult to get kids down quickly in the duck and cover away from windows. Um, but I guess it's easier if you've practiced. So that's something to keep in mind. All right, so you might have severe weather it where you are that deals with earthquakes or it may deal with um snowstorms or blizzards or things like that. I I created this reader to help kid teach kids about severe weather because that was a standard that I had to cover in science in second grade. And I also wanted to integrate reading. I think it's really powerful when we bring two subjects together because it's kind of like, you know, it's kind of taking care of two things at once, which can be so rewarding, especially when your day feels jam-packed full of things that you have to do. So when I'm teaching nonfiction standards, if I'm teaching, you know, connecting to other ideas, or I'm teaching main idea or supporting details, or I'm teaching, you know, if I'm teaching anything like that, author's purpose, whatever it is that I'm covering, I like to have science or social studies text in order to teach those standards so that I'm covering the science topic or the social studies topic that I'm supposed to be covering as well, because often those those areas get completely eliminated because there's just not enough time. It's really the only way for us to do that. And so I created the severe weather reader, which is which is made up of several different components. It's made up, it's talking about an introduction to severe weather, that we talk about watches, what's the difference between watches and warnings and thunderstorms, and we talk about safety in thunderstorms, we talk about tornadoes and tips for tornadoes, lightning, lightning safety, flash flooding, flash flooding safety, hurricanes, and that's those are the things we're talking about. But to tell to teach this, not only am I giving them information that was written for second graders, but it's because I wrote it. Um, it's a little reader that I wrote. It's also focused on standards that we are going that we need to cover, such as asking and answering questions and informational text, or again, the main idea, um, or a series of events or word meanings inside of text, or text features, you know, like heading, bold headings or bold words or visuals and things like that that helped the reader better understand the story. Author's purpose, why would a why and the beauty of having for me, the beauty of having the book and giving it to my students and having them read it was that when they the whole author's purpose part became really really metacognitive because I was there and I was able to talk about it and also I was able to see how sometimes our purpose isn't it doesn't come out correctly, or we have whatever our bias is, we bring it into our writing, which is also a great conversation to have about writing in general and how we have to look out for that. And and that can you know veer off into another topic, but one that's very important, especially in today's world with the internet and AI, it's even more important than ever. Okay, so the one thing that I don't cover in this severe weather reader is snowstorms. So I think that would be a great opportunity to get out your research tools and let kids gather information about snowstorms and blizzards and kind of talk about it, maybe following the same kind of format of like what it they are, you know, what what that that does that look like, and then safety around that and tips for you know dealing with snowstorms and blizzards. And I think that can be really helpful. I think sometimes when we have a resource, if it doesn't have every single thing we need, then this is a great opportunity to allow kids to come up with information. So just a thought. All right, again, like teaching reading and science together is so powerful because you're covering two things at once. Another thing to keep in mind is this little reader is actually really helpful for subplans. You can use it in your sub plans because again, you're teaching reading and science at the same time, and also it takes a little bit of time for kids to read over this. You can do like a close reading, you can do a shared reading, the sub can work with them and they can work individually on their reader answering the questions, or they can work with a partner answering questions, so it makes it really helpful. And this is the time to have your sub plans dusted off because it's that time of year when you start feeling really run down, you've made it through the holidays, and now it's like, oh, I'm right in the middle of flu season. So hard. And like I said before, sometimes this questions that stem from discussing storms can really be a launching pad into talking about what it feels like to be to feel safe and why that's so important, not just from like severe weather, but also safe in general and what does that mean? And and also having empathy for other people when other states are struggling with hurricanes and tornadoes. Are we having the empathy, the necessary empathy for them? When other states are having snowstorms, like how are we understanding that as Floridians? So I think I think these can be really important discussions. All right, so let's let's wrap it up here. Um I want your teaching, it doesn't ha I want you to know that your teaching, it doesn't need to be flashy, it needs to be thoughtful, it needs to be something that intentional and something that can lead to larger conversations with kids. That's when when learning really comes alive. Okay. So I'm gonna link to the severe weather reader if you're interested. And also I have some January subplans that are perfect for this time of year, or even February subplans if you are in need of that. And that's just one more thing you can take off of your plate. But most importantly, keep yourself safe. Whether that means you got an umbrella, you're wearing a good winter coat, you are not driving in severe weather, or you're taking a moment for yourself. Whatever that means, let's let's make you a priority for 2026. Until next time, sweet dreams and sleep tight.