Rainy the Raindrop Explores the
Water Cycle!
By: Aliyah Taylor and Reagan Dickerson
Rainy the raindrop was playing with his friends
on a sunny day when all of a sudden he started to
rise into the air. His friends were so worried! They
started calling his name and none of them knew
what was happening. He was evaporating which
means he was changing from water to moisture in
the air. He disappeared and turned into water vapor
which is tiny water drops in the air.
Wait!
Rainy the raindrop got higher and higher into the
atmosphere which is the air around us. He soon met a
big, puffy, white cloud named Cumulus. Cumulus told
Rainy how he got up there. Cumulus said when he rose
into the sky it was called…. Evaporation! Rainy floated
right into the middle of Cumulus because Wendy the
wind pushed him. When Rainy got in there he saw a
bunch of other raindrops in there with him.
Rainy was confused! Were all those raindrops
captured too? But the raindrops told Rainy that
they had become condensation or a cloud and
they would soon become precipitation.
Precipitation is any form of water that falls from
the sky. Rainy was so relieved! He thought he
would never see his friends again after floating
away!
… Later in the afternoon, Rainy was falling right into
the trap of Rita the rain gauge. “What is this?” he
thought. Soon a bunch of other raindrops came
falling in too! They told him a rain gauge was just a
way to measure precipitation. Rainy asked, “Are we
ever going to get out of here?” The other raindrops
said that they wouldn’t get out until another sunny
day and then they will rise into the air again as
evaporation!
On the next sunny day, again Rainy began to
rise higher and higher but this time he knew what
was happening. He was evaporating. This time he
was caught in a different cloud named Stratus, a
thick gray cloud, but he still fell from the sky as
precipitation again. When he fell as precipitation he
missed the rain gauge and fell onto the sidewalk
with all of his friends. They were all so happy and
Rainy told them all about his wonderful adventure
called the water cycle.
His friends had so many questions to ask but
Rainy told them that first he wanted to spend
some time with them. Rainy asked if they
wanted to race and that is how run-off came
to be. Run-off is the running of water on a
hard ground or surface.
Glossary
1. Evaporation- turning a liquid into a gas and going into the sky.
2. Water vapor- water droplets in the atmosphere that are invisible.
3. Condensation- turning a gas into a liquid or a cloud.
4. Precipitation- any form of water particles that fall from the sky.
5. Run-off- precipitation that flows across a flat surface or falls into
streams or rivers.
6. Cumulus- a puffy cloud that appears to rise from a flat bottom.
7. Rain gauge- a tube shaped tool used to measure precipitation.
8. Wind- air that moves from left to right.
9. Atmosphere- the layers of gas that surrounds Earth.
10. Stratus- a cloud that completely covers the sky.