Never ending story

Activity overview

Run the activity

1. You’re going to watch a short video. The aim isn't to find right answers, it's to explore ideas and find out what they know.

• Do they know what might happen based on the image?

2. After you've watched the video, lead a discussion with your class:

• What do you think this video was about and why?
• How do we get rain?
• What different scientific processes are involved in the water cycle?
• Why do you think it is called the water cycle?

3. Ask the class to describe what they saw using only one word.

Background science

71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered in water; most of it in our seas and oceans. Without access to fresh water there would be no life on Earth. This water is constantly recycled as part of the water cycle. The water cycle is the continuous journey of water from oceans and lakes to clouds, to rain, to streams, to rivers and back into the ocean again.

The liquid water on the surface of the Earth and in our oceans, rivers and lakes, is warmed by the heat of the Sun and becomes an invisible gas called water vapour. This process is called evaporation. As the water vapour rises up into the sky, it cools down and changes back into tiny water droplets. This process is called condensation and is the opposite of evaporation. The water vapour condenses and becomes a liquid again. This liquid is held in the air in the form of tiny water droplets or, if it is colder as ice crystals, which we see as clouds. These droplets or crystals bump into each other and stick together forming bigger droplets. They continue combining until they are too heavy to be held in the air. At this point, precipitation occurs, when water falls back to Earth as rain, snow or hail. The raindrops which reach the ground are made up of about a million of the tiny water droplets which first formed the cloud.

Most of that precipitation falls as rain onto our oceans, with about 10 percent falling on the land. The water, snow or hail that falls on the land runs down mountains and hills forming streams and rivers that feed back into the oceans. This process is called run-off. Some of the water soaks into the ground and some of this will slowly move through the ground until it reaches a river or the ocean. Once the water is back on the surface of the Earth, the Sun can shine on it, and the cycle begins again.

The water in our oceans, rivers, toilets and even the water we drink from our taps is the same water that would have quenched the thirst of a dinosaur over 65 million years ago.

Take it further

Activities

Children could research the water cycle using secondary sources, including videos like this one from the Met Office. They could then use a presentation app like PowerPoint or Slides to make an animated presentation explaining the Water Cycle with moving clouds and rain as well as sound effects for rain.

Alternatively, they could write about the journey of a rain drop in Literacy.

Children could make models of the water cycle. This uses a large bowl filled with warm water. An alternative is to make a water cycle in a bag for display in the classroom window. 

Follow guidance from your health and safety advisor, click here for support.

Other recommended Explorify activities:

Ask the class Have You Ever splashed in a puddle? Watch Liquid of life , or discuss What if water didn’t evaporate?

Watch

This BBC clip explains the water cycle.