The Water Cycle

expectations Students will be able to recognize evidence of the water cycle and relate what they have learned to ordinary experiences. By teaching follow up activities you are able to provide opportunities for students to work towards expectations in two or more subjects within one lesson. (Ministry of Education and Training, 1998, The Ontario Curriculum Grades 1-8 Science and Technology).

Precipitation Precipitation occurs when there is so much water vapour in the air that it cannot be held by the clouds anymore and it falls to the ground in the form of rain, snow, hail or sleet(

Collection When water falls back to earth as precipitation, it may fall back into the oceans, lakes, rivers or it may end up on the ground. The earth will either soak up the water and become ground water and the plants and animals will drink it or it may run over the soil and collect in bodies of water and the cycle will start all over again (

Evaporation Evaporation occurs when the sun heats up water and turns it into vapour or steam. The water vapour leaves bodies of water, i.e., lakes, rivers, oceans, puddles etc… and goes into the air. You can see this in the early morning mist, fog, or steam of a kettle or boiling water on the stove. (

Transpiration Transpiration is the process where plants lose water vapour from their leaves, similar to sweating. (

Condensation When the water vapour in the air gets cold and changes back into liquid and forms clouds. If you pour a glass of cold water on a hot day you can see condensation in action. Water forms on the outside of the glass. The droplets on the glass comes from the air. “Water vapour in the warm air, turns back into liquid when it touches the cold glass” (

The Water Cycle Song (Oh My darling, Clementine) Action Song Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation on my mind, It’s all part of the water cycle and it happens all the time. (My daughter learned this song in SK at Algonquin Road Public School)

Additional/Follow Up Activities Follow up Science Activities Boil water in a kettle to demonstrate EVAPORATION – ensuring the safety of the students and yourself Hold a cold clear plate over the kettle or put cold water and ice cubes in a glass and watch the droplets form on the plate or the sides of the glass to demonstrate CONDENSATION Watch the droplets fall off the plate or the glass to demonstrate PRECIPITATION Give the children formal definitions of each scientific concept Construct a Water Cycle Model as a class project Expand on the water cycle by introducing the concept of erosion and ground water. This can be done by having a sand table to your classroom Fill a beaker with water – Record the water level and then keep track of the water level each day – observing the effects of evaporation Math Activities Students in Grade 2 may have had a lesson on data management in mathematics and make a graph depicting the results from the previous observations.

Additional/follow up Activities Music Activity – Introduce the Water Cycle song or construct rain sticks Visual Arts Activities - Poster and Colouring Sheets and Rainy Day Pictures. Technology Integrated Assignment - Have students create a Kid Pix Slide show or have them research the water cycle on kid-based websites Language Arts Activity -Have children write a story about “The Life of a Water Droplet” – discussing the Water Cycle and the scientific concepts of the water cycle Introduce the story The Magic School Bus Wet All Over. Finding their own definitions in a dictionary for these concepts

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