Volunteer Teaching Outline: The Water Cycle
The Earth’s water is in its oceans, lakes and rivers, in the atmosphere and underground, inside plants and animals and frozen in its glaciers and
icecaps. The water present today is the same water that has been here for millions of years, though it is constantly in motion, moving from place to
place. Water evaporates into vapor, condenses into clouds, precipitates as rain or snow and transpires through plants, as it moves between
atmosphere and land, over and over again in a cycle that is powered by the sun.
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THIS MONTH’S ACTIVITES
UNIT VOCABULARY
Puppet Show: visualize a water drop’s journey through the water cycle.
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Water cycle
Precipitation
Condensation
Evaporation
Trip Around the Water Cycle (K-2): review the water cycle from the puppet show.
Respiration
Transpiration
Picture How Water Moves Around (grades 3-6): draw a model showing parts of a
Water vapor
Ground water
water cycle on Earth.
Capillary action
Glaciers
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SUGGESTED OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
Picture How Water Moves
Around
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Water Journeys
Journal Activity
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Sticky Water Activities: observe examples of cohesion, adhesion, and surface tension
in water.
Rising Water: use a model to understand how water travels through plants by capillary
action.
Water Journeys: model the movement of water through the water cycle and the varied
routes that it can take.
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BOOKS FOR KIDS
Journal Activity and Sharing Circle: think about water in our landscape!
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Berger, Melvin, Gilda Berger and Bobbi Tull (Illustrator), Water, Water Everywhere: A Book About the
Water Cycle, Ideals Publications, 2001. (Informational; Age 4 and up; Grade K and up)
Locker, Thomas, Water Dance, Voyager Books, 2002. (Poetry; Age 4-8; Grade 1 and up)
Lyon, George, and Katherine Tillotson (Illustrator), All the Water in the World, Antheneum Books, 2011.
(Poetry; Age 4-8; Grade K-3; Lexile 520L)
McKinney, Barbara, and Michael Maydak (Illustrator), A Drop Around the World, Dawn Publications, 1998.
(Fiction; Age 5 and up; Grade K and up; Lexile 820L)
Relf, Patricia, and Carolyn Bracken (Illustrator),The Magic School Bus Wet All Over: A Book About the
Water Cycle, Scholastic Press, 1996. (Fiction; Age 4-8; Lexile 350L)
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Waldman, Neil, The Snowflake: A Water Cycle Story, Millbrook Press, 2003. (Fiction; Age 5 and up; Grade K and
up)
White, Dianne and Beth Krommes (Illustrator), Blue on Blue, Beach Lane Books, 2014. (Age 5-8; Grade K-3)
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02/15
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THE WATER CYCLE ALIGNMENT WITH NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS
Grades K-2
• Core Idea PS1A: Different kinds of matter exist and many of them can be either solid or liquid, depending on temperature. p.108
• Core Idea PS1B: Heating or cooling a substance may cause changes that can be observed. Sometimes these changes are reversible (e.g., melting and freezing), and sometimes they are not (e.g., baking a cake, burning
fuel). p.110
• Core Idea PS2B: When objects touch or collide, they push on one another and can change motion or shape. p.117
• Core Idea PS3B: Sunlight warms Earth’s surface. p.125
• Core Idea ESS2C: Water is found in the ocean, rivers, lakes, and ponds. Water exists as solid ice and in liquid form. It carries soil and rocks from one place to another and determines the variety of life forms that can
live in a particular location. p.184
• Core Idea ESS3C: Things that people do to live comfortably can affect the world around them. But they can make choices that reduce their impacts on the land, water, air, and other living things—for example, by
reducing trash through reuse and recycling. p.195
Grades 3-5
• Core Idea PS1A: Matter of any type can be subdivided into particles that are too small to see, but even then the matter still exists and can be detected by other means. For example a model showing that gases are
made from matter particles that are too small to see and are moving freely around in space can explain many observations, including the inflation and shape of a balloon; the effects of air on larger particles or objects;
and the appearance of visible scale water droplets in condensation, fog, and by extension, also in clouds or the contrails of a jet. p.108
• Core Idea PS2B: Objects in contact exert forces on each other (friction, elastic pushes and pulls). Electric, magnetic, and gravitational forces between a pair of objects do not require that the objects be in contact – for
example, magnets push or pull at a distance. p.117
• Core Idea ESS2A: Earth’s major systems are the geosphere (solid and molten rock, soil, and sediments), the hydrosphere (water and ice), the atmosphere (air), and the biosphere (living things, including humans).
These systems interact in multiple ways to affect Earth’s surface materials and processes. The ocean supports a variety of ecosystems and organisms, shapes landforms, and influences climate. Winds and clouds in the
atmosphere interact with the landforms to determine patterns of weather. Rainfall helps shape the land and affects the types of living things found in a region. Human activities affect Earth’s systems and their
interactions at its surface. p.181
• Core Idea ESS2C: Water is found almost everywhere on Earth: as vapor; as fog or clouds in the atmosphere; as rain or snow falling from clouds; as ice, snow, and running water on land and in the ocean; and as
groundwater beneath the surface. … Nearly all of Earth’s available water is in the ocean. Most fresh water is in glaciers or underground; only a tiny fraction is in streams, lakes, wetlands, and the atmosphere. p.185
• Core Idea ESS3A: All materials, energy, and fuels that humans use are derived from natural sources, and their use affects the environment in multiple ways. Some resources are renewable over time, and others are
not. p.192
• Core Idea ESS3C: Human activities in agriculture, industry, and everyday life have had major effects on the land, vegetation, streams, ocean, air, and even outer space. But individuals and communities are doing
things to help protect Earth’s resources and environments. p.196
Grades 6-8
• Core Idea PS1A: Gases and liquids are made of molecules or inert atoms that are moving about relative to each other. In a liquid, the molecules are constantly in contact with each other. The changes of state that
occur with variations in temperature or pressure can be described and predicted using these models of matter. (Boundary: Predictions here are qualitative, not quantitative.) p.108-109
• Core Idea ESS2C: Water continually cycles among land, ocean, and atmosphere via transpiration, evaporation, condensation and crystallization, and precipitation as well as downhill flows on land. …Global
movements of water and its changes in form are propelled by sunlight and gravity. p.185
• Core Idea ESS3A: Humans depend on Earth’s land, ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere for many different resources. Minerals, fresh water, and biosphere resources are limited and many are not renewable or
replaceable over human lifetimes. These resources are distributed unevenly around the planet as a result of past geological processes (link to ESS2.B). p.192
Note: The Disciplinary Core Ideas listed above are taken from Grade Band Endpoints in A Framework for K-12 Science Education. Additionally, our activities give children opportunities to engage in many of the
Science and Engineering Practices and reflect on the Crosscutting Concepts as identified in the Next Generation Science Standards.
THE WATER CYCLE ALIGNMENT WITH COMMON CORE STANDARDS
Grades K-2
• Common Core Writing Standard 3: Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to
signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.
• Common Core Mathematics Standard K.CC: Count to 100 by ones and tens. Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality. Count to answer “how many?” questions
about as many as 20 things.
Grades 3-5
• Common Core Writing Standard 3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
Note: The Common Core Standards listed here are in addition to the ones that our activities typically address, as listed in the Four Winds document, The Nature Program: Alignment with
Learning Standards.
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