Lets learn about

THE WATER CYCLE

BY LINDSY NOYES

WHAT IS THE WATER CYCLE?

Have you ever noticed how water comes from the land and from the sky? Is the water in the lake that I swim in the same water that rains from the sky? How does the water get from the lake to the sky? These questions can all be answered by understanding the water cycle!

The water cycle is the process water goes through as it travels from land to sky, back down to land. It is called a cycle because these processes happen over and over again in the same order.

Lets explore how the water cycle works!

Earths water is always on the move. This continuous movement of water is called the water cycle.

There are four main processes of the water cycle

Condensation

Precipitation

Evaporation Collection

http://heightstechnology.edublogs.org/ 2

Evaporation
Evaporation is the process of water moving from Earths surface to the sky. The sun heats up the water and turns it into a form of gas called vapor. How does it do this?
How does a liquid turn to a gas?

Water changes from a liquid to a gas when it is heated up. An increase in heat makes the water molecules move faster and spread farther apart from each other. This creates a gas or vapor!
http://mrediv5.edublogs.org/science/

The warm water vapor rises up into the sky because it is less dense than liquid water.
3

Water is all over the Earths surface. Think about all the places you see water. You see it in oceans, in lakes, in rivers and ponds. You see puddles of water on the street and on wet grass. Water all over the surface of Earth evaporates.

Wa t e r e v a p o r a t e s : 1.Faster in warm temperatures. A cup of water outside on a hot day will evaporate faster than a cup of water outside on a cold day. There is more heat to turn the liquid water to steam. 2.Faster when it is in a shallower container. In a long shallow container more water is exposed to the surface where it evaporates from

We can see evaporation when we boil water. As the water heats up it begins to turn to steam. You can see steam rising from a boiling pot of water.

Test your knowledge of evaporation!

Condensation

After the water evaporates and rises from Earths surface to the sky the next process of the water cycle is condensation. When water vapor gets up in the sky it gets colder. When the fast moving water particles get colder they slow down and turn back into liquid water up in the sky. When water vapor condenses into liquid in the sky it forms into a cloud
5

A cloud is a mass of condensed water.

http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/edu/ k12/.cloudformation

You can see condensation occurring when you leave out a glass of cold water. When warm, wet air hits the outside of the cold glass the water in the air changes from a gas to a liquid. Thats why we see water droplets on the outside of the glass.
6

Precipitation

http://mrediv5.edublogs.org/science/

When so much water condenses into clouds the next process of the water cycle occurs. When clouds get so heavy of water the water falls back down to Earths surface. This is called precipitation.
7

Depending on the weather, we see precipitation as rain, snow, or hail.

If the weather is very cold precipitation can fall in the frozen form of water. As the liquid water falls from the cloud it gets even colder and turns to a solid or partial solid.

Most of the time we see precipitation as rain. The water in the clouds comes down in its liquid form.

Snow

http://www.wallpapergate.com/ wallpaper30130.html

Hail

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/ news/2010/may/02/making-rain-with-

http://easyscienceexperiments.co.uk/hail

Collection

http://eflreader.wordpress.com

When water falls back to Earth as precipitation it lands back in oceans, lakes, rivers, and land. Water can collect in bodies of water or it can collect on the ground. Some water seeps into soil and collects as ground water.
9

And then the cycle starts over again.

Can you name all the processes of the water cycle?

10