Vocabulary All images courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art and Google Images under Creative Common Licensing

Evaporation the energy from the Sun heats up the water bodies on Earth This causes water to evaporate from the surface of these water bodies. All images courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art and Google Images under Creative Common Licensing

Condensation Condensation is the formation of liquid drops of water from water vapor that has cooled. It is the process which creates clouds, and so is necessary for rain and snow formation as well. All images courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art and Google Images under Creative Common Licensing

Precipitation water that is released from clouds in the sky; includes rain, snow, sleet, hail, and freezing rain Water vapor in the atmosphere cools to form clouds. In clouds, small water droplets come together to form bigger droplets or attach to ice crystals. When the droplets or crystals become heavy, they fall to the ground as rain, snow, sleet, or hail. This is called precipitation. All images courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art and Google Images under Creative Common Licensing

Water Vapor When water is heated, it becomes a gas. This gas is called water vapor, or steam. When water vapor is cooled, it turns into water again. Water vapor is all around, we just can’t see it. All images courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art and Google Images under Creative Common Licensing

Model a model is a representation that can make the real thing easier to study All images courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art and Google Images under Creative Common Licensing

Gas a state of matter without any defined volume or shape All images courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art and Google Images under Creative Common Licensing

Atmosphere layers of gas that surround a planet All images courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art and Google Images under Creative Common Licensing

Solid matter with a fixed volume and shape All images courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art and Google Images under Creative Common Licensing

Liquid a state of matter with a defined volume but no defined shape All images courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art and Google Images under Creative Common Licensing