The Water Cycle

Vocabulary

Read the vocabulary terms to understand the reading better.

Condensation is when cool air makes water vapour change back to tiny drops of water.

Evaporation is when water turns from a liquid to a gas.

Hail is balls of ice that form when drops of water freeze together high up in clouds.

Precipitation is water that falls to the Earth in different forms such as rain, snow and hail.

Sleet is tiny pellets of ice that is sometimes mixed with rain or snow.

The water on Earth keeps recycling. We call this the water cycle. The water cycle makes sure that we always have water.

The Sun heats the water on Earth. Some of the heated water turns into vapour. This is called evaporation. The vapour rises into the air.
The air is cool high in the sky. The cool air makes the vapour change back to tiny drops of water. This is called condensation. The water drops group together. They form a cloud.
The water drops in the cloud become larger as more water condenses. When the cloud gets heavy, the water drops in the cloud fall back to Earth. The water falls as rain, hail, sleet, or snow. These are all forms of precipitation.
The cycle begins again.

To learn more about the water cycle, watch the video by SciShow Kids on YouTube.