Teaching the Water Cycle Third Grade

Reenacting evaporation

This stage of the cycle is when the sun's rays heat up water on Earth's surface. As the water heats up, it begins to turn into water vapor that rises into the sky. This process of water changing from its liquid form to its gas form is evaporation.

Laura is dressed in all blue and represents water as it lays on the ground. Erin, who is dressed in all yellow, represents the sun's heat. As the sun's rays hit the pool of water, the water begins to heat up and change phases as it evaporates into the sky.

Condensation is the opposite of evaporation. This is when the water in the air changes state yet again and turns into a liquid. As the water droplets begin to form, they group together to create clouds.

Condensation doesn't only occur in clouds; it happens everyday around you everyday. Take a glass like this one. It's filled with water but, when you add ice to it, you'll begin to see water form on the outside of the glass. This is condensation. Due to the temperature change of the water inside the glass, water vapor around the glass condense into a liquid. This same process happens in the sky and all the water droplets that form come together to make a cloud.

Precipitation is the stage when the clouds let go of the water. The water can leave the clouds in various forms: water, sleet, or snow.

Clouds act like sponges. When a sponge can no longer hold anymore water, they are squeezed and the water is released. Clouds, in a sense are squeezed as well when they are too full and they let their water fall down to Earth

Resources:
Background sounds: ClipArt Pictures: http://ed101.bu.edu/StudentDoc/current/ED101sp12/bmele/b mele/evaporation.html (evaporation) http://alexstrazse.deviantart.com/art/A-Little-Black-StormCloud-290233750 (condensation) http://www.edupic.net/weather_gr.htm (precipitation) http://www.andybrain.com/sciencelab/2008/04/26/learnabout-volume-and-space-with-ice-water/ (ice water) http://nicolecthompson.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/sponge/ (sponge)