The Water Cycle
Understand the water cycle: the Sun heats water in oceans and lakes causing it to evaporate into water vapour, the vapour rises and cools to form clouds (condensation), and water falls back to Earth as rain, snow, or hail (precipitation) — then the cycle repeats
Lesson
Set out your lesson
“Water moves among stores and changes state. Solar energy helps drive evaporation; gravity helps water fall and flow. Water vapour is invisible gas. Clouds contain tiny droplets or ice crystals. The water cycle has many paths, with no single starting point or fixed travel time. Safety: No water handling or heating. This diagram does not forecast rainfall or specify water quality. Stop: Stop after two paper routes. Do not boil water, use hot water, make a sealed bottle cycle, or wait for real weather.”
Bring to the table
- Paper
- Pencil
- One large torn paper marker
Extra for the adult
Worked example. At ocean → air, answer: evaporation changes liquid water to water vapour. At cloud → land, precipitation moves liquid or solid water downward. The cloud is not the invisible vapour itself, because its visible droplets or crystals scatter light.
Optional challenge. Add a plant route: roots take up water, then leaves release water vapour through transpiration.
What to notice. Keep the diagram and a written or adult-recorded route explanation. Note help with labels, reading, or choosing the groundwater branch.
Share and support
Family records and proof options
Keep a record of your learning
Save photos, notes, and attendance. Export a proof packet for compliance or portfolio reviews.
Learning resources
Extra practice links — they do not replace Gakuva’s teaching approach.
NASA Climate Kids · Practice link — not the full lesson
What Is the Water Cycle?
Before you open · source notes
What Is the Water Cycle? supports The Water Cycle. An adult previews and guides; this is a learning page, not a scored quiz.
Free educational page, no sign-in required for the tested path.
Before you openAsk the learner one fact they learned and one question they still have.
Opening this link does not save learning or assess mastery.
Source, access and review notes
Public NASA Climate Kids page. An anonymous GET on 2026-11-12 returned HTTP 200 with no login or payment prompt for this URL. Opening the link does not save practice or assess mastery. An adult should preview and guide the learner.
NASA Climate Kids. “What Is the Water Cycle?.” External page; Gakuva does not copy, host, embed, or redistribute materials.
Unknown — link only
Check understanding
- Name the three main stages: evaporation, condensation, precipitation
- Explain the Sun's role in driving the water cycle
- Describe the water cycle as a continuous loop with no beginning or end
“Can your child trace the journey of a raindrop — from the ocean being heated by the Sun, rising as invisible vapour, forming a cloud, and falling back down as rain — and explain it keeps going round and round?”
Curriculum record
- Type
- Conceptual
- Subject
- Science
- Domain
- Weather & Climate
- Age range
- Ages 7–9
Standards