The water cycle fits into many areas of study. Little people love it as it pertains directly to their lives (even the littlest people know that clouds form and it rains).
Start your water cycle lesson with this simple activity!
Materials:
- Ziplock bag
- sharpie
- water
- food coloring
Procedure:
- Use your Sharpie, and draw a simple (for younger kids) or complex (for older kids) water cycle on a baggie.
- Mix a few drops of food coloring into a cup of water, and pour into baggie. Seal the bag.
- Place baggie in the sun, and wait. In a few hours, come back and check out the bag.
So, what’s the big deal? What are you observing?
- Evaporation and Condensation – This is the hardest process to explain to little people. But you can SEE it on the inside of the bag. All those white water drops on the inside of the baggie — where did they come from? The water evaporated from the heat of the sun, and condensed on the baggie when it had no where else to go. This is just like on Earth, when water evaporates from oceans and lakes and settles on particles in the air to form clouds.
- Precipitation – if you leave the baggie out long enough, the water droplets on the inside of the bag will start to pool together and rain down the side of the baggie. This is similar to what happens on Earth, when too much water accumulates in clouds and it rains.
