Teaching the Water Cycle

Teaching the water cycle with hands-on science activities is fun and educational for homeschooled children.

Take your homeschooled child outside to show him the water cycle in action.

The amount of water on the planet remains at a constant level, working its way through various forms in what is known as the water cycle, or hydrologic cycle. The water cycle is the circulation of water from the land to the air and back again.

During the water cycle, water goes through four stages:

Evaporation occurs when the sun heats water in lakes or oceans and turns it into steam. The steam, or water vapor, then rises into the air.

Condensation takes place when the water vapor in the air cools and changes back into liquid form. This cooled vapor is what forms clouds.

Precipitation is the most obvious stage of the water cycle for most children. It occurs when the clouds become heavy with condensed water. The water falls back to the earth as rain, snow, sleet, or hail.

Saturation is when precipitation falls from the sky and ends up on land, where it either soaks into the earth or runs over the soil and back into the oceans or lakes.

Teaching the water cycle to your homeschooled child with hands-on activities will increase his interest in the water cycle and in his environment.

1. Fill a cooking pot half full of water and heat on stove. Watch with your child as the water heats up and produces steam. This is a good example of evaporation.
2. Fill two shallow dishes with water. Place one outside in the sun (or beneath a light if no sun is available). Place the second dish in a shady location. Ask your child to guess what will happen to each dish. Check on the dishes every four to six hours. On the second day, measure the water level in each dish. Did the water in one disappear more quickly than in the other?
3. Cut off the top of a pizza box and place it in the freezer for one to two hours. Turn your kitchen tap to its hottest setting. Remove the cardboard top from the freezer and place it approximately 12 inches over the rising steam from the sink. The water droplets that form on the cardboard top are an example of condensation.
4. Collect three clear containers and fill one with soil, another with clay, and the third with sand. Instruct your child to drip water into each container and note how quickly the water is absorbed. Does one absorb the water more quickly than the others do? Where does the water go? This activity will help teach saturation.

Building a terrarium with your homeschooled child is an easy and fun way of teaching the water cycle. By observing your terrarium for several weeks, your child can watch the water cycle in action.

What you need:

• Small, clear plastic container
• Clear lid or plastic wrap
• Soil
• Plant seed

How to build your terrarium:

1. Slowly pour soil into the bottom of the plastic container. The soil must be deep enough to cover your plant seed.
2. Push the plant seed just below the surface of the soil, making sure the top of the seed is fully covered.
3. Gently water the soil until it is moist.
4. Cover the plastic container with a clear lid or tightly fitting plastic wrap.
5. Place the container in a sunny location, such as on a windowsill.
6. Check on the terrarium each day and note any changes.

If you are interested in additional resources for teaching the water cycle to your children, the Internet offers a variety of interactive and educational activities and worksheets.

• The Environmental Protection Agency website offers several excellent activities for children between the ages of five and nine years. There is a flash animated, interactive illustration that allows children to control the water cycle while they learn about its different stages, a graphical representation of the water cycle, and two PDF activity books full of activities and coloring pages.

• The EnchantedLearning site has a fun water cycle quiz that uses the Little Explorers picture dictionary.

• Earthguide offers an animated water cycle diagram and quiz for children.

• The NASA website encourages children to read the story of Droplet and the Water Cycle and play an online game designed to teach the stages of the water cycle.

• Environmental Education for Kids! features Round and Round It Goes! The Water Cycle, as well as a water quiz, water poem, water cycle word search, and an interactive water cycle diagram.

• The University of Richmond website provides a list of interesting facts about the water cycle and an animated illustration to teach children about precipitation, evaporation, condensation, and saturation.

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