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(don't miss the printable activity sheets at
the bottom of this page)
The Water Cycle
Run and get a glass of water and put it on the
table next to you. Take a good long look at the water. Now -- can
you guess how old it is?
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The water in your glass may have fallen from
the sky as rain just last week, but the water itself has been around
pretty much as long as the earth has!
When the first fish crawled out of the
ocean onto the land, your glass of water was part of that ocean.
When the Brontosaurus walked through lakes feeding on plants, your
glass of water was part of those lakes. When kings and princesses,
knights and squires took a drink from their wells, your glass of water was
part of those wells.
And you thought your parents were
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The earth has a limited amount
of water. That water keeps going around and around and around and
around and (well, you
get the idea) in what we call the
"Water Cycle".
This cycle is made up of a few main parts:
- evaporation (and transpiration)
- condensation
- precipitation
- collection
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| Evaporation:
Evaporation is when the sun heats up water in rivers or lakes or the ocean
and turns it into vapor or steam. The
water vapor or
steam leaves the river, lake or ocean and goes into the air.
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Do plants sweat?
Well, sort of.... people perspire (sweat)
and plants transpire. Transpiration is the process by which plants
lose water out of their leaves. Transpiration gives evaporation a
bit of a hand in getting the water vapor back up into the air.
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| Condensation:
Water vapor in the
air gets cold and changes back into liquid, forming
clouds. This
is called condensation.
You can see the same sort of thing at
home... pour a glass of cold water on a hot day and watch what
happens. Water forms on the outside of the glass. That water
didn't somehow leak through the glass! It actually came from the
air. Water vapor in the warm air, turns back into liquid when it
touches the cold glass.
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| Precipitation:
Precipitation
occurs when so much water has condensed that the
air cannot hold it anymore.
The clouds get heavy and water falls back to the earth in
the form of rain, hail, sleet or snow.
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| Collection:
When water falls back to earth as precipitation, it may fall
back in the oceans, lakes or rivers or it may end up on land.
When it ends up on land, it will either soak into the
earth and become part of the “ground water” that plants and
animals use to drink or it may run over the soil and collect in
the oceans, lakes or rivers where the cycle starts
all over again.
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Water Cycle Activity Pages.
Print these out and use them as posters or coloring pages. Sheets 2 thru 4 have some suggested activities you can do at home to
demonstrate the Water Cycle.
Sheet 1 - (color)
or (B&W)
Sheet 2 - (color)
or (B&W)
Sheet 3 - (color)
or (B&W)
Sheet 4 - (color)
or (B&W)
Sheet 5 - (color)
or (B&W)
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