1. Rainy the Raindrop Explores the Water Cycle! By: Aliyah Taylor and Reagan Dickerson

2. Rainy the raindrop was playing with his friends on a sunny day when all of a sudden he started to rise into the air. His friends were so worried! They started calling his name and none of them knew what was happening. He was evaporating which means he was changing from water to moisture in the air. He disappeared and turned into water vapor which is tiny water drops in the air. Wait!

3. Rainy the raindrop got higher and higher into the atmosphere which is the air around us. He soon met a big, puffy, white cloud named Cumulus. Cumulus told Rainy how he got up there. Cumulus said when he rose into the sky it was called…. Evaporation! Rainy floated right into the middle of Cumulus because Wendy the wind pushed him. When Rainy got in there he saw a bunch of other raindrops in there with him.

4. Rainy was confused! Were all those raindrops captured too? But the raindrops told Rainy that they had become condensation or a cloud and they would soon become precipitation. Precipitation is any form of water that falls from the sky. Rainy was so relieved! He thought he would never see his friends again after floating away!

5. … Later in the afternoon, Rainy was falling right into the trap of Rita the rain gauge. “What is this?” he thought. Soon a bunch of other raindrops came falling in too! They told him a rain gauge was just a way to measure precipitation. Rainy asked, “Are we ever going to get out of here?” The other raindrops said that they wouldn’t get out until another sunny day and then they will rise into the air again as evaporation!

6. On the next sunny day, again Rainy began to rise higher and higher but this time he knew what was happening. He was evaporating. This time he was caught in a different cloud named Stratus, a thick gray cloud, but he still fell from the sky as precipitation again. When he fell as precipitation he missed the rain gauge and fell onto the sidewalk with all of his friends. They were all so happy and Rainy told them all about his wonderful adventure called the water cycle.

7. His friends had so many questions to ask but Rainy told them that first he wanted to spend some time with them. Rainy asked if they wanted to race and that is how run-off came to be. Run-off is the running of water on a hard ground or surface.

8. Glossary 1.Evaporation- turning a liquid into a gas and going into the sky. 2.Water vapor- water droplets in the atmosphere that are invisible. 3.Condensation- turning a gas into a liquid or a cloud. 4.Precipitation- any form of water particles that fall from the sky. 5.Run-off- precipitation that flows across a flat surface or falls into streams or rivers. 6.Cumulus- a puffy cloud that appears to rise from a flat bottom. 7.Rain gauge- a tube shaped tool used to measure precipitation. 8.Wind- air that moves from left to right. 9. Atmosphere- the layers of gas that surrounds Earth. 10. Stratus- a cloud that completely covers the sky.