The Water Cycle
Fill in the blanks below with words from
Evaporation
Sunny
Precipitate
Evaporates
Clouds
Vapor
Heating
Heavy
Oceans
Droplets
Plants
Hail
Runoff
Snow
Cycle
Rain
rivers
streams
this box:
Condenses
Atmosphere
Lakes
Glaciers
Crystals
Sleet
Evaporation:
On a warm, __sunny________ day, water in a glass seems to slowly disappear. This is because the
energy from the sun is heating
the water up and turning the liquid water into water vapor . This
process is called evaporation. When the water evaporates, it becomes an invisible gas in the
atmosphere
. Evaporation takes place all over the earth, but especially in the ___lakes _ and
__oceans____ where there is a lots of water.
Condensation:
As water vapor rises, it cools off and __condenses __ into water __droplets __. If the water vapor
becomes extremely cold, it will form ice __crystals__ instead of water droplets. As the water droplets
or ice crystals grow bigger and more numerous, they form _clouds ___.
Precipitation:
If water droplets or ice crystals become too __heavy___, they can’t stay in the air. They __precipitate
__. Water droplets precipitate as ____rain
_ and ice crystals precipitate as ___snow ____.
Sometimes, the rain freezes before it hits the earth and precipitates as ___hail________ or
___sleet_______.
Runoff:
This precipitation gathers into __streams ___ and ___rivers
__ that flow down to the lakes and
oceans. This is called ___runoff __. Not all of the water makes it back to the oceans and lakes right
away. Some of it is used by animals and __plants ___. Some is frozen into _ glaciers ____.
eventually, the animals breathe and plants transpire the water out and the glaciers melt, releasing the
water back into the never ending water ___cycle___.
Sublimation
Condensation
Water Vapor
Rain, Hail, Sleet,
& Snow
Transpiration
Evaporation
Precipitation
Water Vapor
Surface water
Runoff
Ground water
Percolation
Bonus Words: Percolation & Sublimation