The water cycle
Stage 1
Exploring how all water moves endlessly through
the water cycle
© State of New South Wales through Department of Planning and Environment 2022. Information contained in this publication is based on
knowledge and understanding at the time of writing, June 2022, and is subject to change. For more information, please visit
[Link]/copyright. Learning resource adapted with permission from an original learning resource by Sydney Water Corporation © 2021.
PUB22/1231
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Lesson 1
The natural water
cycle
Activity 1: Wondering about water
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Does water
disappear?
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How are clouds made?
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Is rain new water?
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How does water move from the earth to the
clouds and back?
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Lesson 1
The natural water
cycle
Activity 2: What is the natural water cycle?
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Did you know?
All the water on the Earth
is all that we have.
It moves from the earth to
the sky and back again
every day, all the time.
It goes round and round in
an endless cycle called the
natural water cycle.
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Can you guess how old water is?
Days? Weeks?
Years?
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It’s billions of years old!
There is never new water. In fact,
saber tooth tigers sharks, whales and goldfish dinosaurs
drank this water swam in this water drank this water
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So how does it work?
The natural water cycle starts
with the sun. When the sun
shines it heats the water on
Earth.
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Evaporation
is when the sun heats the water
and the water droplets are too
hot to stick together. They turn
into gas called water vapour.
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Transpiration
is when the sun warms
people, plants and
animals.
When we sweat or
breathe we release small
amounts of water vapour
into the air, too.
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Did you know?
A gum tree can transpire
(release) up to 200L of water
everyday!
That’s 100 milk bottles of
water.
Trees can help make
clouds - think about
rainforests.
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Condensation
is when water vapour rises
in the air and cools to form
tiny water droplets that
stick together. This is how
a cloud is made.
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Precipitation
is when the clouds are so
heavy with water droplets
they fall as rain, snow or hail.
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Run-off
is when water flows over the
ground and into creeks, rivers and
oceans.
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Infiltration
is when water falls on the
ground and soaks into
soil.
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Percolation
is when water seeps deeper into
tiny spaces in the soil and rock.
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Water cycle song
by Monica Sheba
To the tune of ‘She’ll be comin’ round the mountain’
Water goes round in a circle, yes it does
(use finger to draw a large circle in the air)
Water goes round in a circle, yes it does
(repeat motion)
It goes up as evaporation
(raise arms with palms up)
And makes clouds and condensation
(bring hands above head to form a cloud shape)
Then falls down as precipitation, yes it does
(slowly lower hands, wiggling fingers)
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Lesson 2
Water cycle
experiments
Activity 1: Demonstration – can you make a cloud?
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What are clouds? What are they made of?
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Did you know?
Clouds are made up of squillions of
tiny water droplets.
The average cloud weighs about
500 tonnes (500,000 kg).
That’s about 100 elephants!
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Let’s make a cloud!
Watch a part of the water cycle in action
[Link]/bZ3O17hEgNE 25
What happened to
the warmed water?
Water droplets are too
hot to stick together
and turn into gas called
water vapour.
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This happens in
nature too
Water droplets are too hot to
stick together and turn into
gas called water vapour.
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What
happened
near the ice
cubes?
The ice cooled the water
vapour. 28
The water vapour
turned into tiny water
droplets that stick
together.
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This happens in
nature too
When water vapour rises in
the air, it cools and forms
tiny water droplets that
stick together. This is how
a cloud is made.
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Lesson 2
Water cycle
experiments
Activity 1: Practical investigation – does water
disappear?
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Let’s see if water evaporates
Measure and compare
[Link]/kmmEV4ohSDA
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Plan an investigation
Experiment title: Water evaporation experiment
How fast/much will the water
evaporate (float away)?
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Did you know?
Evaporation and transpiration helps us
keep cool!
When liquid water like sweat turns to
water vapor (gas) it cools the air around
us.
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Lesson 3
The urban water
cycle
Activity 1: What is the urban water cycle?
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Natural environments
are the living and non-living things found
naturally in a space or place.
Built environments
are places and spaces created or
changed by people.
What is the urban water cycle?
It's when we change and manage
the natural water cycle to meet our
water needs.
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We change the water cycle so we can…
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Where does our water come from?
Ocean
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Dams
We build dams to store rainwater
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Oceans
We can also get water from oceans by removing the salt
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Other sources of water
We can also get water from rivers, recycled water, rainwater and groundwater.
rivers recycled water other sources
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Is your water cleaned? How does it get to you?
Water filtration plant Reservoir stores our clean drinking
cleans and filters drinking water water
Our homes
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What happens after we use our water?
Where does it go?
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Used water gets cleaned
Used water goes down drains and gets cleaned at a water recycling plant
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and can be used again!
rivers ocean
recycled water
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Where does water (stormwater) outside
our homes go?
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The water cycle
Ocean
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Stormwater Drain
Lesson 3
The urban water cycle
Activity 1: What’s my urban water cycle?
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Where does your water come from?
dams ocean
recycled water other sources
rivers
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Build your own water cycle!
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What I learned about water
Write or draw
in a droplet.
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