1. Weather > The Water Cycle
DE Science Elementary
“5-Minute Prep” For Weather and Climate
Weather > The Water Cycle

2. The Water Cycle – The Big Ideas
The sun provides the energy that drives the water cycle.
When liquid water is warmed, it evaporates and turns into water vapor, a gas that enters the atmosphere.
Water vapor can become liquid water or ice as it cools.
Water vapor that has turned to liquid water or ice falls as precipitation.
Water falling from the sky collects in bodies of water on the surface of the Earth as well as underground.

3. The Water Cycle- Prior Knowledge
Learning about the water cycle is an advanced concept. Students will probably not know the vocabulary related to understanding the concept. It is likely that students know about precipitation, but will not have a solid understanding of condensation and evaporation. Students probably have many misconceptions about the different forms of water and how it forms a cycle. It will help to frontload the important vocabulary before teaching this unit.

4. The Water Cycle – Common Misconceptions
The water cycle involves freezing and melting of water.
Reality: The water cycle involves liquid water being evaporated, water vapor condensing to form rain or snow in the clouds, which falls to the earth as precipitation.
Water evaporates from only lakes and oceans.
Reality: Water can evaporate from plants, animals, puddles, and the ground in addition to bodies of water.
When water boils or evaporates, it disappears or goes straight into the clouds.
Reality: Boiling water or water left in an open container evaporates, changing from liquid to gas. The gas escaping from boiling water is water vapor. When this vapor condenses in the air it is visible as tiny water droplets.

5. The Water Cycle – Using DE Science Content
When you close this presentation, you can review the following recommended resources for The Water Cycle.
Exploration: The Water Cycle
Video: The Water Cycle
E Book: Can You Repeat That?
Reading Passage: It’s Only Water
Use the PowerPoint version of this presentation for hyperlinks to these resources or you can get to them through the browser or search feature.

6. The Water Cycle- Instructional Ideas
Before showing the video to students, give them a list of ten statements from the video.
Students are to read the list before viewing the video.
After viewing students are to identify the statements that are false and correctly rewrite them.
Put students into groups of two.
One student can read the E Book about the water cycle and the other student can read the Reading Passage.
The students can then debrief with each other and teach their partner about the article they did not read.

7. Additional Information:
State standards:
If you wish to review your state standards regarding the Water Cycle, click here to get to the curriculum standards search feature of DES.
You can click on any standard to see what resources are available to teach it.
Additional Information:
For additional content, check the Extend section within the concept.