C y c l e

Water Cycle

This is the water cycle.

➡➡Evaporation

Surface run-off

CondensationPrecipitation

Ocean

Sun

Land

Lake

Clouds

Water Cycle Diagram

2

Water is a liquid. The sun shines on the water. The water evaporates. It becomes a gas. This is called evaporation. Water vapor is the name for water when it is a gas. It becomes part of the air. You cannot see water vapor. You cannot see air.

Evaporation

Ocean

3

When the water vapor goes up in the sky, it gets colder. It bumps into dust in the air. The water vapor makes droplets on the dust. Droplets are liquid water. The change from water vapor to liquid water is called condensation. Condensation makes clouds in the sky. The clouds are a group of water droplets.

Evaporation

Ocean

CondensationmakesClouds

4

The droplets of water get bigger. The clouds get larger. They get darker. When the droplets in the clouds get too heavy, they fall to the ground. This is rain. Rain is precipitation. Sometimes the air is so cold that the water in the clouds freezes. Then we have snow, sleet or hail. These are other forms of precipitation.

Clouds

Precipitation

5

Water that is frozen is a solid. Solid water can be ice, snow, or hail.

6

Do you think a snowman is a solid? If you said, “Yes!” you are correct. A snowman is a solid until it melts. A snowman melts when it is warmed. The sun’s energy makes it warm. Then the solid snowman becomes a liquid puddle of water.

7

The water cycle is like a big circle. Water evaporates. It forms water vapor. Water vapor condenses. It forms water droplets. Water droplets precipitate. They fall to the ground. Then water evaporates again.

➡

➡Evaporation

Surface run-off

CondensationPrecipitation

Ocean

Sun

Land

Lake

Clouds

Water Cycle Diagram

8

The water on the earth has always been here. It is the same water that was here when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Water moves in a cycle.

9

Glossary:

Condensation – when water vapor becomes droplets.

Droplets – tiny water drops.

Evaporation – when liquid water becomes water vapor.

Freezes – when water gets very cold it changes into a solid.

Gas – water in the air is a gas.

Liquid – water in lakes is a liquid.

Melts – when solid water, like snow, gets warm it changes into a liquid.

Precipitation – when water falls from clouds.

Solid – water that is frozen as ice or snow is a solid.

Water vapor – when water is a gas.

10

Water cycle – the name for how water evaporates, condenses, and precipitates.

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12/08Copyright 2008 by the Board of Cooperative Educational Services for the Second Supervisory District of Monroe and Orleans Counties, Elementary Science Program. All rights reserved. This publication may only be reproduced for one-time classroom use. No part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted or reproduced, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Monroe 2–Orleans BOCES, Elementary Science Program.

Written under funding from Monroe 2–Orleans BOCES by:

Mary Thomas, Assistant DirectorSue Witter, Reading SpecialistDesigned and Printed by the BOCES 2 Printing and Graphics Services.

Correlation

Weather UnitWater Cycle