I love snow. Actually, I love watching snow fall. It arouses a child-like wonder that makes watching feel magical. And I love the way it quiets the world, even if just for a short time.
So why not take my love of snow and turn it into a winter reading comprehension challenge for 5th and 6th graders?
If you live in an area where it snows, you know how much your students are drawn to the windows when they see snow, accompanied by lots of wondering about whether an early dismissal or a cancellation is in the cards!
Snow, and especially blizzards, are a fascinating topic for students to explore. There's so much to learn about how blizzards form, how meteorologists track them (we have a lot of opinions about that!) how animals survive them, and why these storms can be dangerous.
All of that together creates a natural opportunity to combine Science and Language Arts. If you've read my blog for a while, you know how much I love blending topics like this together, building background knowledge and strengthening reading skills.
How Blizzards Connect Science and Reading
Think about what students need to understand when they read about blizzards. They need to follow how a storm develops and can change direction. They need to understand weather vocabulary. They need to recognize cause-and-effect relationships and distinguish between facts and misconceptions.
They also need to use detail from the text to figure out what is happening and why. And that means strengthening science AND reading comprehension skills.
For example, when students read about whiteout conditions, they're learning what happens when blowing snow makes it hard to distinguish the ground from the sky. They're also practicing how to identify important details and determine whether statements about the passage are true or not.
When they read about animal adaptations, they're learning how different animals survive extreme winter conditions. And they're making connections between an animal's physical characteristics, its behavior and its environment.
Five Blizzard Passages, Five Different Challenges
I didn't want to write one long passage about blizzards, I wanted to explore different aspects of them. And of course, each passage had to have its own challenge.
1. Tracking a Blizzard: How do Meteorologists Follow a Storm?
Blizzards don't always move predictably. In the first passage, students follow a developing storm as meteorologists track changes in wind speed, temperature, air pressure, and jet stream. They learn how different air masses and weather systems can affect a storm's movement.
For the challenge, students have to put those events from the passage into corrrect order. Then they use the numbers associated with those events to solve a math puzzle.
This is a great opportunity to practice sequencing while reinforcing the idea that weather systems are constantly changing.
2. A Blizzard Broadcast: Can You Decode the Message?
What happens when a community loses power during a dangerous winter storm?
In this passage, an Emergency Operations Center loses power, and the only working communication device is an old battery-powered radio. Instead of a regular weather report, listeners hear a series of short and long beeps.
Students discover that the message is being sent in Morse Code.
Their challenge? Decode the sounds and unscramble them to uncover the actual warning. Students need to use logic, follow directions, and work with a way of communicating that may be unfamiliar to them.
3. Teaching Animal Adaption through Nonfiction
I may be crazy enough to stand outside and watch for a while, but more likely, I'll make a fire in the fireplace and watch from inside my warm home. What do animals do in extreme conditions? This passage explores several animal adaptations:
- Snowshoe hares use their large back feet to move across deep snow
- Ptarmigans have feathered feet that help them walk on snow
- Some animals burrow underground
- Deer travel in groups and take turns breaking paths through the snow
- Wolves conserve energy and hunt closer to shelter
- Musk oxen use their thick wool to trap heat
For the challenge, students match each animal to its adaptation or behavior. Then they use the letters from their answers to uncover a mystery word.
4. Whiteout Conditions: Why Is It So Dangerous to Be Outside?
Most students know that a blizzard can make driving difficult but unless they live in snowy climates, they may not understand just how dangerous a whiteout can be.
This passage explains how blowing snow and scattered sunlight can make the ground and sky blend together so that familiar landmarks disappear and people become disoriented. Students also learn about ways people have navigated during severe storms, from ropes tied between buildings to modern GPS and radio communication systems.
For the challenge, students decide whether statements about the passage are true or false. They have to pay attention to details because some of the statements sound reasonable at first, but aren't supported by the reading. This is a great way to practice finding text evidence!
5. Record Breaking Blizzards: What Can We Learn From Extreme Weather?
The final passage looks at a powerful snowstorm in Buffalo, New York: heavy snowfall, dangerous visibility, snowdrifts, frostbite, and the lake-effect snow that affects communities near the Great Lakes.
It introduces several important weather-related vocabulary words which students use in the challenge. Context clues play an important role here.
More Than Just a Winter Reading Passage
I created this resource because I wanted students to practice reading comprehension in a way that felt different than the usual routine, and Escape rooms provide that. There's a time and place for each kind of reading passage, and this one has students working through all kinds of reading skills.
They practice:
- sequencing events
- identifying cause and effect relationships
- using context clues to understand vocabulary
- matching details and supporting information
- distinguishing between accurate and inaccurate statements
- decoding information and solving problems
- going back into the text to find evidence
- following multi-step directions
And, they're doing it while learning about meteorology, animal adaptations, severe weather, and winter safety. My favorite kind of learning opportunity!
Want to take a closer look? Click on the picture above to see if your students might want to outsmart blizzards and this Escape Room!
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