Water Cycle Activities

1-2-3 Come Make A Water Cycle Wheel With Me

water cycle activities, water cycle worksheet, water cycle crafts, easy science lessons, daily 5 for april, daily 5 word work for april, daily 5 activities for spring I'm sorry this is getting posted late. Because of an allergic reaction, I spent most of last night in the ER, and then was transferred to ICU 'til later this afternoon.

Really makes your priorities in life clear, as well as appreciation of the much-taken-for-granted, simple act of breathing.

Any hoo, I'm a firm believer in "better late than never" so here is a quick and easy water cycle lesson.

It is now even later, as I finished the article, and instead of hitting control save, I hit who knows what, and lost the entire thing!

Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. Arggg!

I did this bit of science in April as it coincided with the April shower weather we were having outside, and was a nice addition to our weather studies.

Here's how to make a water cycle wheel:

Run off the templates on white construction paper. Students will trim into a circle and cloud shape.

Little ones may need help cutting the window on their cloud.

Students color blue raindrops onto the wheel windows and then place the circle behind their cloud so that it is in the center.

water cycle activities, water cycle worksheet, water cycle crafts, easy science lessons, daily 5 for april, daily 5 word work for april, daily 5 activities for spring Poke a hole in the middle and fasten the wheel to the cloud with a brass brad.

To give the cloud more pizzazz and a 3D effect, have students press whisps of pulled-cotton on to the top.

Just an FYI: You need to model this step and explain to students how the pulled cotton balls look so much more realistic, than a whole cotton ball plopped on their cloud, other wise you may get quite a few kiddos who skip the pulling step and simply glue the entire cotton ball on their cloud.

I further explained, that they were only getting a few balls that would be enough for their entire cloud if pulled apart, but certainly not enough if they just glued on the whole cotton ball.

This extra bit of explanation was very successful. I not only wanted them to listen and follow directions, but to practice this wonderful fine motor exercise.

Inform students that they should pull apart all of their cotton balls and make a nice pile of "fluff" and then press it on their glue-covered cloud.

When everyone is done with their cloud wheel, review the water cycle concept as a whole group.

I've also included a cut & glue water cycle worksheet to further reinforce cutting skills and the new science vocabulary.

Another fun way to hone in on the words, and a great way to "get the wiggles out" is to do this action-chant:

My Y5's would crouch down and say: collection, then they'd jump up and say; evaporation.

Making a big cloud with their arms, they would exclaim: condensation. Their bodies would bend slightly forward as their clouds got heavier and heavier.

Finally, they would fall down to the ground and yell: precipitation. I'd go through this 3 or 4 times. The 3rd time we'd say the words and do the actions as fast as we could.

For the last time, we'd do it in a low voice and move very slowly. This quieted things down.

My Y5's LOVED doing this and learned the new vocabulary by the end of the day. Throughout the entire month, we'd practice the water cycle action chant.

water cycle activities, water cycle worksheet, water cycle crafts, easy science lessons, daily 5 for april, daily 5 word work for april, daily 5 activities for spring Click on the link to view/print the Water Cycle activities.