Interactive Water Cycle Activity
After teaching the different parts of the water cycle, use this activity as a review or
assessment piece. Two options for using this with students:
 Copy the examples and cut apart. Give each student a strip and have them
decide where their example goes in the water cycle.
 Copy a set of the examples for each team or table group. Have the group sit
together and decide where each would go in the water cycle.
The first copy of the examples is for teacher use. It categorizes them by process. The
second copy has the headings removed and can be handed to students to cut apart and
mix up. When you are ready to assess you will have a numbered list to use as a key.
Say to Students: Today you are going to pretend to be a molecule of water. You
remember that a molecule is the smallest amount of a substance that can exist. Water
molecules can be found in different forms or phases. What are the forms in which we
find water? (ice, liquid water, water vapor) Can you remember what causes water to
change from one form to another? (adding heat or taking away heat) Another way to
say a change in form of matter is “phase change.”
If you were a water molecule, you would likely change phases often. Each of these
changes has a name that we learned earlier. What process causes water to change
from water vapor to liquid water? (condensation) What process causes liquid water to
change into vapor? (evaporation)
Water also moves from one place on earth to another through different processes. For
example, when lots of water molecules stay together in one place we call that …
(collection). Water can collect as a solid in glaciers or snow. It can collect as water
vapor in humid air, or it can collect as liquid water in lakes, rivers, streams, underground
reservoirs, or the ocean.
Another place you might find water is where it is being used. For example, when you
drink water it goes into your body and is used to move nutrients to all parts of your body.
A plant also uses water to move food made in its leaves to other parts of the plant.
When water molecules leave a plant the process is called transpiration. When water
leaves an animal through sweat it is called perspiration. Of course, people and animals
also lose water as a waste product.
Let’s go back to you being a water molecule. I’m passing out slips that tell a scenario
about you in the water cycle. Your job is to decide what process you are going through
in each scenario.
For whole group, one strip per student: When you decide what process you are
going through, move to the card with that name.
For table groups: Read each strip and place it in the appropriate pile.
Condensation
Evaporation
Precipitation
Collection
Using Water
The Water Cycle Examples (Teacher copy)
Condensation:
7. You float around in the bathroom while someone
showers, then come in contact with the mirror and make it
misty.
12. You rise in the warm outside air until you are high
enough to cool off. You then join with other water
molecules to form a cloud.
15. You float near the ground around a cold lake or river
and turn into fog.
16. You come out with a child’s breath as they breathe on
a car window so they can write their name in the hazy
white film that now covers the window.
20. You float in the air of an office building until someone
comes in from the cold wearing glasses and you can join
with other water molecules to make the glasses foggy.
25. You touch the side of a can of cold soda pop and join
with other water molecules there until you form a droplet of
water on the side of the can.
28. You hit a cold window pane and gather with other
molecules to make tiny droplets that fog up the window.
Evaporation:
1. You break away from the surface of the ocean on a hot,
sunny day and invisibly float up into the air.
8. You are squeezed out of a spray bottle and separate
from the other water molecules in the warm air. You are
invisible as you float in the air.
9. You sit in a pan on the stove and begin to bubble, then
bump around as the heat is turned up. Finally you float
from the pan into the air.
14. You come out of the sprinkler on a hot summer day.
Some of the water seeps into the soil to help the grass
grow, but you land as a drop on top of the grass. From
there the hot sun causes you to float up into the air above
the grass.
32. You are in a puddle that is warmed by the sun. You
float up into the atmosphere.
Transpiration and Perspiration (not in our core but useful)
21. You come out of a plant’s leaf and the heat of the sun
makes you float away from the surface of the leaf into the
air.
27. You come out of a person’s skin as sweat and the heat
of their body causes you to jump up into the air where no
one can see you.
Collection:
2. You travel downhill from the mountain top as the winter
snow melts. You end up in a pond.
10. You move up and down in the ocean as it swirls,
twists, and splashes.
11. You sit on the soil until you soak into the rock. You
move until you reach a cavity full of underground water.
19. You drip off the bottom of a boat back into the lake as
the boat is taken out of the water. You remain in the lake.
24. You land on the soil and are pulled downhill by gravity
until you meet more water going in the same direction and
become a stream.
30. You move from a stream into a river and continue to
move along in the river with other water.
Using Water (liquid water)
4. You are in the ocean and a fish gulps you in. You
remain in the fish’s body helping it to process its food and
remove waste.
6. You are in a lake when a deer comes to the water’s
edge and drinks you.
13. You are part of a stream. You move closer to the
edge of the stream and are caught in the roots of a small
tree. You move up the tree’s roots and into the trunk and
branches to help the tree move food from its leaves.
17. You run out of a faucet into a cup and a boy drinks
you.
22. You fall from a shower head in a bathroom and wash
dirt and shampoo from a mom’s hair.
26. You are in the ocean and are gathered into the roots of
seaweed, traveling up the stem and into the leaves of the
plant.
Precipitation:
3. You are in a cloud that is blown into a mountain. It is
pushed up higher until the cloud becomes too cold to hold
any more water. You fall from the cloud as snow.
5. You are in a cloud and gather with other droplets to
form rain drops that fall from the cloud.
18. You fall heavily from a cloud and nearly reach the
ground when the wind blows you back up into the cold
cloud. You get another layer of ice and then another.
Finally you fall from the cloud as hail.
23. You fall out of the cold cloud. Part of the water with
you is snow, part is water. You fall to the ground as sleet.
29. You drip down the outside of a cold glass of ice water
and make a water ring on the table.
31. After you collect on the lid of the terrarium, you drip
back down into the soil.
33. You are in a droplet of water that fogs a window. A
little girl runs her finger along the window to write her
name in the fog. You join with other droplets until gravity
causes you to run down the window.
Student copy
12. You rise in the warm outside air until you are high
enough to cool off. You then join with other water
molecules to form a cloud.
15. You float near the ground around a cold lake or river
and turn into fog.
16. You come out with a child’s breath as they breathe on
a car window so they can write their name in the hazy
white film that now covers the window.
20. You float in the air of an office building until someone
comes in from the cold wearing glasses and you can join
with other water molecules to make the glasses foggy.
10. You move up and down in the ocean as it swirls,
twists, and splashes.
28. You hit a cold window pane and gather with other
molecules to make tiny droplets that fog up the window.
1. You break away from the surface of the ocean on a hot,
sunny day and invisibly float up into the air.
8. You are squeezed out of a spray bottle and separate
from the other water molecules in the warm air. You are
invisible as you float in the air.
9. You sit in a pan on the stove and begin to bubble, then
bump around as the heat is turned up. Finally you float
from the pan into the air.
14. You come out of the sprinkler on a hot summer day.
Some of the water seeps into the soil to help the grass
grow, but you land as a drop on top of the grass. From
there the hot sun causes you to float up into the air above
the grass.
7. You float around in the bathroom while someone
showers, then come in contact with the mirror and make it
misty.
32. You are in a puddle that is warmed by the sun. You
float up into the atmosphere.
21. You come out of a plant’s leaf and the heat of the sun
makes you float away from the surface of the leaf into the
air.
27. You come out of a person’s skin as sweat and the heat
of their body causes you to jump up into the air where no
one can see you.
2. You travel downhill from the mountain top as the winter
snow melts. You end up in a pond.
25. You touch the side of a can of cold soda pop and join
with other water molecules there until you form a droplet of
water on the side of the can.
11. You sit on the soil until you soak into the rock. You
move until you reach a cavity full of underground water.
19. You drip off the bottom of a boat back into the lake as
the boat is taken out of the water. You remain in the lake.
24. You land on the soil and are pulled downhill by gravity
until you meet more water going in the same direction and
become a stream.
30. You move from a stream into a river and continue to
move along in the river with other water.
4. You are in the ocean and a fish gulps you in. You
remain in the fish’s body helping it to process its food and
remove waste.
6. You are in a lake when a deer comes to the water’s
edge and drinks you.
13. You are part of a stream. You move closer to the
edge of the stream and are caught in the roots of a small
tree. You move up the tree’s roots and into the trunk and
branches to help the tree move food from its leaves.
17. You run out of a faucet into a cup and a boy drinks
you.
22. You fall from a shower head in a bathroom and wash
dirt and shampoo from a mom’s hair.
26. You are in the ocean and are gathered into the roots of
seaweed, traveling up the stem and into the leaves of the
plant.
3. You are in a cloud that is blown into a mountain. It is
pushed up higher until the cloud becomes too cold to hold
any more water. You fall from the cloud as snow.
5. You are in a cloud and gather with other droplets to
form rain drops that fall from the cloud.
18. You fall heavily from a cloud and nearly reach the
ground when the wind blows you back up into the cold
cloud. You get another layer of ice and then another.
Finally you fall from the cloud as hail.
23. You fall out of the cold cloud. Part of the water with
you is snow, part is water. You fall to the ground as sleet.
29. You drip down the outside of a cold glass of ice water
and make a water ring on the table.
31. After you collect on the lid of the terrarium, you drip
back down into the soil.
33. You are in a droplet of water that fogs a window. A
little girl runs her finger along the window to write her
name in the fog. You join with other droplets until gravity
causes you to run down the window.