The water cycle is the nonstop journey water takes between the land, the oceans, the air and living things. Energy from the sun warms water in oceans, lakes and puddles so it evaporates into an invisible gas called water vapor. Plants add more vapor through their leaves in a process called transpiration. As warm, moist air rises and cools, the vapor condenses into tiny droplets that form clouds. When the droplets join and grow heavy, they fall as precipitation: rain, snow, sleet or hail. On the ground, water runs off into streams and rivers, soaks into the soil as groundwater or collects in lakes and oceans, ready to start again.
In fifth grade, the NGSS performance expectation 5-ESS2-1 asks students to model how Earth's systems interact, and the water cycle is a clear example of the hydrosphere, atmosphere, geosphere and biosphere working together. Standard 5-ESS2-2 adds how much of Earth's water is salt water and how much is fresh. The quiz below covers each stage, so try to picture where the water is at every step.
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Answer: B) The sun
The sun heats water so it evaporates. Without that energy the cycle would not keep moving.
Answer: evaporation (also accepted: evaporating, evaporate)
Evaporation turns liquid water into an invisible gas, water vapor, when it is heated.
Answer: C) condensation
Condensation is the change from gas to liquid. It happens when water vapor cools.
Answer: precipitation
Any water that falls from clouds to the ground is precipitation.
Answer: A) transpiration
Plants take water up through their roots and release some of it as vapor through tiny openings in their leaves. This is transpiration.
Answer: runoff (also accepted: run-off, run off, surface runoff)
Runoff is water that flows across the land surface instead of soaking in.
Answer: D) Water vapor in the air condenses on the cold surface.
The cold glass cools the air touching it, and the water vapor in that air condenses into droplets. The water came from the air, not the drink.
Answer: 3 (also accepted: 3%, 3 percent)
100 minus 97 leaves about 3 percent fresh water, and most of that is frozen in ice.
Answer: C) In glaciers and ice caps
Most fresh water is locked in glaciers and ice caps. Rivers and lakes hold only a small share.
Answer: infiltration (also accepted: percolation)
Infiltration is water seeping into the ground. It refills underground water supplies.
Answer: B) Precipitation
When droplets become too heavy to stay up, they fall as precipitation.
Answer: C) It turned into water vapor in the air.
The sun's heat made the water evaporate. It is still there as invisible water vapor in the air.
Answer: sublimation (also accepted: sublimating)
Sublimation skips the liquid state. It happens to snow on cold, sunny, windy days.
Water vapor is an invisible gas. Clouds are made of tiny liquid droplets (or ice crystals) that form after the vapor condenses.
The sun's energy drives evaporation. Gravity then pulls precipitation and runoff back down.
Evaporation is liquid to gas (heating). Condensation is gas to liquid (cooling). They are opposites.
Transpiration from plants puts a large amount of water vapor into the air, especially over forests.
Turn the water cycle into a printable, differentiated worksheet with an answer key, matched to grade 5.
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Open the student portal βMostly, yes. Water is recycled again and again by the water cycle, so the water in your glass has been through countless clouds, rivers and oceans.
Water changes state and moves place, but it is not used up. The total amount of water on Earth stays almost the same.