The next time you get ready to drink a glass of water, ask yourself, 'How old is this water?' Did you ever wonder where water comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there? Our earth has a very wonderful system of reusing (recycling) the water that we have. When clouds drop their water on the earth, some of it falls on the ground, some falls on lakes or rivers, or some falls on the oceans. More than half of the earth is covered by water. Let me tell you how nature uses water over and over again.

Water never stops moving, it is a cycle, a series of events that repeats itself endlessly. When little pieces of water bump into each other, they give away some of their energy and stick together to form a cloud. Clouds are made up of little drops of water, or if it is cold enough, little crystals of ice. If these little pieces of water keep bumping together, they form big drops and fall to the earth as rain, hail, sleet or snow, this is called precipitation. The rain and melted snow run downhill into rivers and lakes, sometimes crashing over waterfalls. Eventually the water flows into the ocean. During all this travel, the sun heats up the water causing some of the water droplets to evaporate up into the air. During this evaporation, the water turns from liquid into gas called water vapor, and moves from oceans and lakes into the atmosphere where it forms clouds, this is called condensation. Then the water cycle begins all over again.
 

In order to learn and review  water cycle terminology, obtain a Water Cycle Crossword Puzzle from your teacher or print one out for yourself. Use the information on this page to help complete the puzzle.

Once, your crossword puzzle has been completed, obtain a Water Cycle Diagram from your teacher. Fill in the blanks with the correct water cycle terms: evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. If you need help, click one of the web sites below.

The Water Cycle

The Water Cycle - ZoomSchool.com

Lastly, as you have learned, nature cleans and uses water over and over again. The water changes from liquid to a gas or a solid (snow/ice). The water moves from the ocean to the air to the land and back again. The endless movement of water in nature is of course known as the water cycle.

If you want to create your own Water Cycle Wheel, ask your teacher for a copy of the Water Cycle Wheel to color, cut out, and put together.