For Teachers & Kids

The Water Cycle Activities

Background:
Do you remember how the water cycle works? The sun's energy causes water to evaporate from the earth's surface. This process forms water vapor in the atmosphere. As water vapor rises, it cools and becomes a liquid again. This is called condensation. The condensed liquid returns to the earth as precipitation. If you've ever watched those huge cumulonimbus clouds gather over Lake Pontchartrain on a summer day, you probably weren't surprised by the afternoon showers that followed!

Rain showers like that are common in a large watershed like the Lake Pontchartrain Basin.

What Happens To All That Precipitation?

Some of it is used by plants and animals in the Basin. The process of water intake and then breathing out or releasing moisture-laden air is called transpiration...

Some soaks into the ground and becomes part of the water table or an aquifer in the process known as infiltration...

Some enters lakes, streams, and rivers as runoff...

Evaporation from surface water occurs again, and the cycle is complete.

In summary, the Water Cycle recycles the earth's water supply over and over!

Activity
To demonstrate the water cycle, each person in your group or class can play the role of a water molecule passing through the cycle. Try this activity:

Water Cycle Walk

On poster paper or butcher paper, make a sign for each stage of the water cycle: sun, cloud, precipitation (rain, hail, snow, sleet), surface water (lake, river, stream), and groundwater. Make signs to represent water use by plants and animals in transpiration also. Place each in an open space in the center of the classroom, (see diagram).

On poster paper or butcher paper, make directional arrows to represent each process of the water cycle: evaporation, condensation, runoff, infiltration, transpiration (one each for plant and animal use). Place each arrow in its appropriate spot on the floor between two water cycle stages, (see diagram).

Have students represent water molecules (perhaps wearing ball caps with the brim tilted up, labeled H2O) and have them do the "Water Cycle Walk" in small groups.

Play a tape of music with sounds of a stream, thunderstorm or ocean. After 10-15 seconds, stop the music as a signal for students to stand still. Each student can either explain the stage of the water cycle on which he/she is standing, or can respond to questions about the water cycle.

Repeat with remaining groups of students.

Source: Adapted from Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation lesson plans.