The Water Cycle
Understand the water cycle: the Sun heats water in oceans and lakes causing it to evaporate into water vapour, the vapour rises and cools to form clouds (condensation), and water falls back to Earth as rain, snow, or hail (precipitation), then the cycle repeats
What a learner can do afterwards
- Name the three main stages: evaporation, condensation, precipitation
- Explain the Sun's role in driving the water cycle
- Describe the water cycle as a continuous loop with no beginning or end
1 · Read
Water on Earth never sits still. It rises into the sky, turns into clouds, then falls back down as rain or snow. This trip is called the water cycle, and the Sun is what makes it happen.
The Sun warms water in oceans, lakes, and rivers. The warm water turns into an invisible gas called water vapour and floats up into the air. This step is called evaporation.
Mia sees a puddle after a sunny morning. By afternoon, the puddle is gone. The Sun warmed the puddle water until it turned into vapour and floated away into the air.
The water cycle has no beginning and no end.
Water evaporates when the Sun warms it, condenses into clouds as it cools, falls back down as precipitation, then starts the whole trip over again forever.
More to read
Interactive Water Cycle Diagrams for Kids
This is a picture of the water cycle that you can play with. It shows how water travels all around the Earth. You can watch water evaporate from oceans and lakes. The Sun warms the water, and the warm water rises into the sky as water vapour, which is called evaporation. You can see it cool down and turn into clouds, which is called condensation. Then you can watch it fall back down as rain or snow, which is called precipitation. You can also follow the water as it runs over the ground and back into rivers and oceans, ready to start the trip all over again.
Types of Clouds
Clouds are a big part of the water cycle. They form when water vapour high in the sky cools down and turns into tiny drops of water. This is called condensation. In this lesson you learn about the many kinds of clouds in our sky. Some clouds are puffy and white, and some are flat and gray. You learn to look carefully at clouds and sort them into groups. You also find out which clouds carry rain and snow. When those clouds get full of water, the water falls back to Earth as precipitation, and the water cycle keeps on going.
2 · Watch
En anglaisTake it off screen
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.