Elizabeth Starke
Second and Third Grade
Can You Answer These Questions?
 Where does the rain come from?
 Where does the rain go?
 How come we never get any “new water”?
It may be hard to believe but the water that
we see and use today has been around as
long as the earth has.
Just think about it…
The water in your cup was
here with the dinosaurs!!!
Let’s find out how this happens…
The Water Cycle
 The water cycle is the
continuous movement
of water from the
Earth’s water (oceans,
lakes, rivers etc.) to
the air and land then
back to the water in a
cyclical pattern.
Evaporation
 Evaporation occurs when the sun heats
the Earth’s surface water causing it to
evaporate, turning it into vapor (gas).
Condensation
 Condensation is when water, in vapor form
condenses back into water droplets and creates
clouds.
 The more water vapor that collects the bigger and
darker the cloud.
Precipitation
Precipitation is when the droplets of water that
have formed the clouds come together and grow
until they become too heavy and to the earth.
Precipitation can be in the form of rain, mist, hail,
snow or sleet.
Collection
 When water falls back to earth as
precipitation, it may fall back in the oceans,
lakes or rivers or it may end up on land.
When the water ends up on land it will runoff
from the land to rivers and streams which
will eventually return it to the lakes and
oceans.
Build your own Water Cycle
 YOU WILL NEED:
1. jar
2. plants
3. bottle cap or shell of water
4. soil
5. sand
6. small rocks
 DIRECTIONS:
1. Fill jar as in the picture and
put the lid on
2. Put the jar in a sunny place.
3. See how the water cycle
works.
Activities and Books to Enjoy
Play the Water
Cycle Game
Cloudy with a Chance of
Meatballs
By Judi Barrett
Take a trivia trip
Through the water cycle
The Cloud Book
By: Tomie de Paola
Crazy Weather Facts
 Record Precipitation
– On November 26, 1970
more than 1.5 inches of
rain fell I only one
minute in Barst,
Guadeloupe.
– The Atacama Desert in
Chile is the driest place
on earth. It has annual
rainfall of 4/1000 of an
inch (just a few drops).
In 1971, this region
probably had it’s first
rainfall in 400 years!
 Silly Facts
– In Montreal, in 1857, it
rained lizards!
– Red and silver maples
and poplar trees know
hen it is going to rain…
they turn their leaves
up.
– In 1946 it rained frogs
in Memphis,
Tennessee.
Works Cited
 http://www.danbury.k12.ct.us/elemweb/weatherwe
b/vocabulary.html
 http://www.urbanrivers.org/web_images/epa_water
_cycle.gif
 Scholastic Atlas of Weather
– Editor in Chief- Martine Podesto
– Scholastic Inc., New York, 2004
 Weather
– Diane Williams
– Teacher Created Manuals Inc., Westminster CA, 1994