Water is all around us and it’s the most important natural resource for humans. We cannot survive more than 3 days without water and it’s important that our kids know how to protect this resource.
Grab these water cycle worksheets to see how water moves through our environment turning from water into vapour and then back into water.
The water cycle ensures that we have a constant supply of fresh water. You can see how water transforms and goes from our lakes to the clouds and comes back down as rain or snow when the temperatures are below freezing.
Talk to your kids about water conservation and how pollution can affect our water resources.
What are the stages of the water cycle?
Water can go through many process as it travels the earth-atomosphere cycle. There are a few stages that are most important.
Evaporation
The process by which water changes from a liquid state to a vapor and enters the atmosphere. This is change can be caused by temperature, humidity or wind.
Transpiration
The process by which water evaporates from the pores or stoma from plants into the atmosphere.
Condensation
The process where water vapor turns back into a liquid form. When the water vapor in the air is more than the amount of water that can be received from the surface through evaporation.
This is how clouds are formed.
Precipitation
When water falls back to the Earth it can do so as snow or rain. Some of it will return to the atmosphere as vapor. Some will fall on plants and then evaporate back to the atmosphere.
Some of the water travels through the soil and may go into the groundwater which may lead to groundwater runoff.
Runoff
Some of the water that falls through precipitation falls on land and travels through channels and enters streams.
Water Cycle Worksheets Supplies
- Printer (I have this one and I love it!)
- Paper
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Glue
The water cycle can be filled in with a pencil or they can cut and paste the words into the blank spots.
Cut out the water cycle 3-part cards to work on vocabulary as your child learns about the different states of water.
See how water flows from clouds and turns to rain and how it gets back to lakes and rivers to only repeat the cycle again.
Fill out your own water cycle mini-book and to keep a record of what you learned and let you know what they love best about water.
Recommended Water Cycle Books
Explore how water moves through the different parts of the cycle from liquid to gas in our atmosphere. It’s amazing.
The Water Cycle at Work (Water In Our World)
Water Is Water: A Book About the Water CycleEthan The RaindropThe Water Cycle: A 4D Book (Cycles of Nature)Little Raindrop (Nature Stories)Water
To extend this activity, create your own water cycle bag experiment, it’s a super simple science experiment that will show how water transforms into different states.
The water begins to turn into water vapor as it heats up. Head outdoors and set up your own rain gauge to measure the amount of water that hits the ground when it rains next. There are so many ways to explore the water with your kids.
You can create a water cycle bag or your own rain cloud in jar too.
See a free sample below.
Enjoy the Water Cycle Worksheets full pack here to learn more about the water cycle.
Amy @ Orison Orchards says
I love all of your cute printables — and your suggestions for supplementary reading and activities! Oh, and btw, the printer link isn’t working.
Monique says
Thanks I fixed that!