The Water
Cycle
Follow water as it moves from
the oceans, to the air,
to the land, and back again.
Science Corner
Interactive Science Wheels © Silver & Wynne, Scholastic Teaching Resources
M
ore than 97 percent of the earth’s water is salty seawater. With
the sun’s energy warming up the ocean surface, millions of
gallons of seawater evaporates—changes from liquid into gas
called water vapor—every day. Water evaporates from rivers, lakes,
streams, and ponds on land as well. Water vapor is also given off when
animals breathe out and when plant leaves transpire.
Water vapor rises along with the warm air. The higher warm air rises,
the cooler the temperature becomes. Cooler air can’t hold as much
water vapor as warm air can. At the temperature called the dew point,
water vapor changes into tiny water droplets. This process of changing
from gas into liquid is called condensation.
Billions of tiny water droplets group together to form clouds. Winds
blow clouds over the ocean and over land. As the air temperature
continues to cool down, the tiny droplets in clouds combine to form
larger and larger droplets that eventually fall on earth as precipitation,
usually in the form of rain. Rain falls back in the ocean or on land,
depending on where clouds are. At very cold temperatures, water
droplets in the air form solid ice crystals that fall as snow. The process of
changing from a liquid into a solid is called freezing.
During a rainstorm, some water soaks into the soil but most runs
off the land into rivers to be carried back to the sea. Snow melts in the
warm sun and turns back into liquid water. Every day, rivers return
millions of gallons of water back to the ocean. All the ways in which
water moves from the sea to the air to the land and back to the sea make
up the water cycle. Because of the water cycle, water is constantly reused
by all living things. Without water there would be no life on earth.
Plants and animals must have water to grow, survive, and reproduce.
Materials
❉ reproducible pages
65 and 66
❉ scissors
❉ paper fastener
❉ colored pencils,
crayons, or markers
(optional)
63
T h e W at e r C y c l e
More To Do
Don’t Forget Snow
Snow is another form of
precipitation that plays an
important part in the water
cycle. Have students find
out how snowflakes form
in clouds, what happens to
snow when it falls to earth,
and what happens when it
melts. Challenge them to
make their own water cycle
wheels, replacing rain
with snow.
Resources
The Snowflake: A Water
Cycle Story by Neil Waldman
(Milbrook Press, 2003)
Making the Wheel
1 Photocopy pages 65 and 66.
2 Cut out
the water cycle
circle and the wheel along the thick
outer lines.
3 Cut open the arrows and the
cut out
windows on the outer circle
along the thick solid lines.
4Place
circle
on top of the wheel. Push the
paper fastener through the
centers of both pieces to join
them, as shown.
the water cycle
Interactive Science Wheels © Silver & Wynne, Scholastic Teaching Resources
This charming book traces
what happens to one droplet
of water over an entire year,
starting as a snowflake in
January.
The Magic School Bus Wet
All Over: A Book About the
Water Cycle by Pat Relf
(Scholastic, 1996).
After evaporating into
the air, Ms. Frizzle’s class
condenses to form a cloud,
then rains back down as
they take a trip through the
water cycle.
http://www.epa.gov/
ogwdw/kids/flash/flash_
watercycle.html
Click on any of the four
menu items to set the water
cycle in motion.
Teaching With the Wheel
Prompt students to think about how they and their families use water
in their daily lives. Ask: Where does the water you use come from? Why
do you think that the supply of water never runs out except during a severe
drought?
To learn more about the water cycle, invite students to color,
assemble, and read their wheels. Have them turn the wheel clockwise.
Then check for understanding by asking them these questions:
1 What is the water cycle? (The water cycle shows how water moves
from sea to air to land and back again.)
2 How does water get into the air? (The sun warms up the sea and
warm water vapor rises into the air.)
3 What happens to rain that falls? (It runs off the land into rivers and
back to the sea.)
64
The Water Cycle
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Interactive Science Wheels © Silver & Wynne, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Lakes and rivers
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t
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The water cycle shows how water
moves from sea to air to land
and back again.
65
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Interactive Science Wheels © Silver & Wynne, Scholastic Teaching Resources
The Water Cycle
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