The water cycle involves the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the Earth's surface. It includes four main parts: evaporation where the sun turns water into vapor, condensation where water vapor in the air condenses into liquid water forming clouds, precipitation where clouds become too full and water falls as rain, snow, or hail, and collection where precipitation is collected in oceans, lakes, rivers, soil, or underground.

1. Water cycle reviewMeteorology

2. What is the water cycle?The continuous movement of water between Earth’s surface and the air, changing from liquid to gas to liquid.

3. What are the main parts of the water cycle?evaporationcondensation precipitation collection

5. What is happening in this picture?

6. What is evaporation?Evaporation is when the sun heats up water in rivers or lakes or the ocean and turns it into vapor. The water vapor leaves the river, lake or ocean and goes into the air. Water is turning from what to what?Liquid to gas.

7. What is happening in this picture?

8. What is condensation?Water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into liquid, forming clouds. Water is changing from a gas into a liquid. Other than clouds forming, what is another example of condensation?

9. What is happening in this picture?

10. PrecipitationPrecipitation occurs when so much water has condensed that the air cannot hold it anymore. The clouds get heavy and water falls back to the earth in the form of rain, hail, sleet or snow.

11. What is all of the water on Earth called?The Hydrosphere

12. CollectionWhen water falls back to earth as precipitation, it may fall back in the oceans, lakes or rivers or it may end up on land. When it ends up on land, it will either soak into the earth and become part of the “ground water” that plants and animals use to drink or it may run over the soil and collect in the oceans, lakes or rivers where the cycle starts all over again.

13. ActivityFill in the water cycle diagram. Be sure all 4 steps are in the correct order. Include arrows showing the direction the water cycle is going.