With policies that strongly emphasize reading, teachers need interdisciplinary strategies that not only represent professional scientists' practices but also support students' engagement and learning in both science and reading. Opportunities abound for teachers to help students recognize the fluid connections between disciplines such as science, reading, social studies, and mathematics as complementary components of everyday life. This article presents practices that support both reading and science instruction, building learning across subject areas. The applications in this article blend language and science and provide opportunities for students to engage in each of the dimensions of "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS"). The authors propose that elementary teachers integrate "touch," "talk," and "text" in their science instruction to support authentic scientific inquiry and disciplinary literacy for elementary students.