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Severe Storms Lesson Plan
The Severe Storms Lesson Plan provides teachers and students with an opportunity to investigate how storms occur and how to stay safe during a storm through individual or classroom activities.
This lesson challenges students to learn more about storms by asking them to:
An Assessment Guide for teachers is also included within this lesson plan.
Key Learning Areas
The Key Learning Areas (KLAs) for this lesson plan include:
- SOSE
- Literacy
Objectives
The objectives of this lesson plan are to ensure that students are able to:
- apply their knowledge of severe storm survival in a practical sense
- understand the different ways of surviving a storm.
Please note: This lesson can be modified to incorporate other KLAs and to meet the needs of the students and specific content taught.
Get the facts
Students should revisit the Severe Storms – Get the Facts page and the Severe Storms – Ready and Able page and pay particular attention to:
- the three main ingredients for storms
- how storms are created
- the thunderstorm season
- how to survive a storm – actions to take before, during and after a thunderstorm.
Additional storm resources:
- Bureau of Meteorology – Severe Thunderstorms
- Australian Severe Weather website
- Geoscience Australia – Severe Weather
- New South Wales State Emergency Service – Role of the SES: Storms
- Emergency Management Queensland – Severe storm
- South Australia State Emergency Service – Severe storm
- Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia – Storm Response
- Victorian State Emergency Service – Storm Safe
- State Emergency Service Tasmania – Storm Action Guide
Take time to investigate!
Students can investigate severe storms individually, in pairs or groups to find the answers to the following:
- What are some strategies that we put in place before a storm?
- What are some items that are used in an emergency survival kit?
- What actions should you take when a severe storm approaches?
After the brief discussion, allow the students to either work in pairs or individually to fill in the spaces in the chart below:
| Severe Storm Survival and Property Protection |
|---|
| ACTIONS BEFORE THE STORM SEASON |
|
|
| ACTIONS AS THE STORM APPROACHES |
|
|
|
ACTIONS WHEN THE STORM STRIKES |
|
|
| ACTIONS AFTER THE STORM PASSES |
|
|
Students can then work in the same pairs, or groups to design a poster or use a multimedia application to share the information gathered and written in their chart (above).
Alternatively, students could be given a scenario to design a severe storms poster.
An example scenario:
They live in an area (e.g. Oaksville) that is prone to severe storms. Due to the beauty of the nature and wilderness that surrounds the shire, the town receives many tourists from various places in Australia and around the world.
Students need to design a severe storms poster that informs visitors to Oaksville about storm protection. As many visitors may not be familiar with the area, the poster should detail:
- where to go when there is a storm
- how to get there
- what places are not safe to be in when caught in a storm
- what they should have in their emergency survival kits
- who can help.
Students can then present their posters/brochures or multimedia presentation to the class and then display them for other students and parents to see.
Assessment Guide
Teachers can assess with questioning, through group discussion and direct observation how students are able to answer the Time to Investigate! questions.
Allow some time for each group to formulate their research and to discuss how they would react to the situation in order to survive and assist others before they present their findings.
Teachers can also observe individual participation in each of the groups as they present their responses.