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.