Have you ever thought about how old the water is that you drink?  Can you imagine it is the same water that the dinosaurs or a king or queen or knight drank?  How is that possible? Because of something called 

The Watercycle

What is a cycle?  It is something that goes around and around over and over.  This is what happens during the Watercycle 

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Read each of the following and then look at the sketch and find the label that is mentioned

• The sun shines on the water (the sea, lakes, dams etc) and the water evaporates (changes from liquid into a gas) and moves up into the atmosphere.
• The gas (water vapor) collects in the atmosphere and forms clouds.
• The water vapor in the clouds cools down and becomes water again (this is called condensation)
• When the clouds get heavy enough, the rain, or sleet or snow (we call it precipitation) falls to the ground.

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• It falls on the mountains and hills and run off into the rivers and the rivers end in the sea.  Some water goes into the ground (groundwater)
• The whole cycle starts again (from the beginning over and over again)

Now do you understand why we can say we drink water that has been around for millions of years?

You are now going to watch a video and then try and answer the questions.  (if you still do not understand the Watercycle, slowly read the explanation again and watch the video until you understand it)

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Answer the following questions

1. What do we call it if water turns into a gas?
2. What do we call this gas?
3. What is condensation?
4. Name 3 types of precipitation.
5. In which large water body does a river end? (we call this the mouth or delta of the river)
6. Why can we say that we drink water that are millions of years old?
7. Think about this.  If evaporation takes place from the heat of the sun shining on the rivers and dams, why do you think your mom's washing will dry if she hangs it outside in the sun?

You can also read extra information on the interactive link https://water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle-kids-adv.html

Activity

• Draw or build a model of the watercycle - you must also label the different phases that takes place (watch the video to give you an idea)

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• you can also build an indoor watercycle (watch the video to give you an idea)

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