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The water cycle describes how Earth's water is not only always changing forms, between liquid (rain), solid (ice), and gas (vapor), but also moving on, above, and in the Earth. This process is always happening everywhere. Back to the water cycle diagram for students. This website can be very functional when teaching about the water cycle. It has a great diagram with clear illustration, words, and even descriptions for a beginner, intermediate, and advance levels. The diagram itself is kind of whimsical and I think the young grades will really be engaged. It also offers detailed descriptions of the different parts of the water cycle in the side bar. This resource would be very valuable when explaining the water cycle. I think teachers could incorporate the diagram during a lesson. Also, they could do informal assessments on the students by having students come up to the smart board and pointing out certain parts of the cycle. Or it could even be a guide for students when they draw their own water cycle for their notes or for a project. Overall, the diagram and the extra explanations over the water cycle can really be helpful in the classroom.

This activity allows the students to get a better understanding of the water cycle while creating a fun art project. Students will color the printable water cycle stages and then paste them on the cloud template in order. The finished projects can be hung from the ceiling to display your class's work and make your classroom cute and colorful! Because the project is 3-D, it can be spun around which shows that the water cycle is constant and repeats itself. This activity will be done at the end of our water cycle unit in science. It will be one of the many activities done to make sure students understand the process of the cycle. I selected this resource because it is an exciting way to order the stages of the water cycle. Instead of just putting different pieces of paper in order, students can color, cut, and paste their stages on a giant cloud. The free downloadable printable also makes it valuable to me.

This lesson shows the process of the water cycle. Water is placed in a small cup in the corner of a plastic zip lock bag. With a marker, show the stages of a water cycle in a circular direction. Place the bag on the window so that the sun causes the water to heat, thus starting the water cycle. I thought this would be a good activity to lead into a lesson on water accumulation, condensation, precipitation and evaporation. If a teacher was fortunate enough to live close to a local newscast, they could have a meteorologist come to talk to the class one day during the lesson on the water cycle.

This multimedia learning app teaches children about the water cycle. This app allows children to both learn about the water cycle, and test their knowledge. For each stage of the water cycle, the children learn about the process, fun facts about the stage, as well as how it can be seen in nature. Ie.: "Precipitation can be rain, snow, hail, etc." This app was the awarded the 2014 American Association of School Librarians Best Apps for Teaching & Learning in the STEM Category.

US Geologic Survey has created an online interactive depiction of the water cycle. When you scroll over the different types of water action in the image, information about that component of the cycle shows up. This would be useful for student exploration of the water cycle or review.

This is a lesson plan that helps teach the water cycle. It has the students acting as water droplets and moving through different stations in the room to represent them moving through the different stages in the water cycle. I like that in this lesson it gets the students out of their seats.

Learn about evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. In this activity students will discover how the water cycle works as well as how evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection are conducted. During this activity students get to control the water cycle as they learn about the important process. I believe that this activity can support students in memorizing the water cycle as well as understanding why the process is important.

This game is a great way to reinforce the water cycle concepts. It is colorful and bright to engage the children. what I like most is that it reads aloud everything to the player so that children with trouble reading can still fully appreciate the game.

This is a diagram that explains the water cycle and gives definitions on words pertaining to the water cycle. I would use this in my future classroom to give my students a visual to help better their understanding.

This page contains a few worksheets and a powerpoint. There are also printable pictures and text. All of these can be used to help supplement a lesson on the water cycle.

This is a well rounded lesson plan that utilizes online resources as well as in class activities. This serves as a good introduction to the unit and gets the students to be creative. It also hits on multiple styles of learning.

This website has a few ideas on where to go on a field trip involving the water cycle.

This is a 3rd grade lesson series that explains the water series quite well and breaks it down for the students to understand well. Activities are in the lesson to keep the students engaged and help them learn the process better.

This is a really cool activity that could be used in a unit about weather. The students create a "cloud" inside a mason jar and watch as the food coloring "rains" down through the cloud. I could see myself creating a lesson very similar to the lesson depicted on this page. The students read a story about clouds and rain and then did this activity following the reading. Although this activity was done with pre-school children, I think it would be appropriate for first through third grade. I might use this at the beginning of a unit on weather. This could also be a cool center activity for a center day. All the centers could have a weather theme. Or I could also see this activity being useful when discussing the water cycle. Students would be able to see how the "cloud" holds the water for a short time but then releases it. I really can't wait to use this one!

No matter how old you get everyone is always excited when you get to watch a Bill Nye video in class. This video concentrates on condensation. It provides an engaging introduction to the topic and also shows students that you can do the seemingly impossible (making a cloud in a jar) with science!

This is a great activity to make the concept of the water cycle hands-on. Students can watch the process right before their eyes over the matter of an afternoon.

This flyer shows you how to grow a plant in your classroom. This a great idea to help younger students understand the life cycle of a plant. I remember planting something in our second grade classroom one time. We took turns watering it, which was always fun and allowed us to play a part in the plants growth. I would do the same for my students.

This website includes lesson plans and activities to use in conjunction with Weather Channel's classroom program "Elementary Weather". Specifically, it includes weather concepts, scientific method, climate, weather terms, and the water cycle. It gives five lessons with background information, objectives, procedures, outcomes, prep time, materials, and standards. I chose this resource for a number of reasons. It's cross-curricular in at least one other area, provides handouts, has extension and modification plans, includes hands-on lessons, assessment tools, and a long-term project. I see myself using this in the classroom because there are many different directions each lesson can take. Modifications and extensions are important in our districts to meet the needs of diverse learners. I put a $ in the tags in case purchase of the videos is necessary.

This pdf file provides many different lessons on weather for many different grade levels. The pdf file assist the students in understanding the meaning behind the weather as a whole and gives great insight into what students need to do during these weather conditions. I believe that these lesson while give students great insight into how weather works as well as provide the teacher with many different ways to teach the lesson or grade level.

What I love about this science activity is that students are able to make their own bio domes from household items. By using, 3 two- liter soda bottles, a soda cap, soil, and something to plant, students will be able to grow their own plant. Along the way they will learn about the water cycle and how this infrastructure helps promote the grow of an organism. For an activity I would sort students into groups of three. Each group will bring their own supplies. In class they will construct their bio domes and plant a specimen that I will provide them. Once the construction aspect is completed we will set each labeled bio dome aside. Throughout the weeks to come each group, ever student, will keep record of how much their plant is growing. In their records they will summarize what they observe and what they think is going to happen.

This is a great way to bring something visual to a concept that is mostly invisible: evaporation. It gets the students outside and moving a little.