✍🏻 4th Grade Science: The Water Cycle

Hey 4th graders! Have you ever wondered where rain comes from or why puddles disappear? It's all part of something amazing called the Water Cycle! Imagine water going on a never-ending journey. It starts with evaporation, where the sun heats up water in oceans, lakes, and rivers, turning it into an invisible gas called water vapor. This vapor rises high into the sky. As it goes higher, it gets colder and changes back into tiny liquid water droplets, forming clouds – this is called condensation. When these clouds get too full of water droplets, the water falls back to Earth as rain, snow, sleet, or hail. We call this precipitation. Once it reaches the ground, the water collects in oceans, rivers, lakes, or soaks into the ground to become groundwater. Then, the sun heats it up again, and the whole journey starts over! The Water Cycle is super important because it makes sure we always have fresh water to drink and helps plants grow.