The kettle breathes
That mist is water floating up into the air — the same trick the sun plays on the sea.
Lesson for today
The Water Trail
Where does rain come from — and where does it go when the puddle is gone? Tap the numbers 1 → 4 on the picture to follow one little drop all the way round.
⏱ about 30 minutes, or two short sits
👧 best for age 6
🌧 you will need: a bowl, warm water, ice
⭐ earn 7 stars for the Rainbow Badge
1
Evaporation
The sun warms the sea…
Part one · The big idea
Water never goes away. It goes on a trip.
Grown-up, read this out loud with your child. Then ask the three questions on the right — let them do most of the talking.
Long, long ago the dinosaurs drank the very same water you drink. Not a drop has been wasted. The sea is full of water that has been round and round a million times.
Here is the trick: the sun pulls water up into the air, so thin you cannot see it. High up the air is cold, so the water hugs together into a cloud. A cloud gets heavy, and it falls as rain. The rain runs downhill, into a river, and home to the sea — where the sun is already waiting.
Up, gather, down, home. Up, gather, down, home. That is the whole story, and it never stops.
❶ Where does the puddle go?
It soaks up into the air, very slowly, as invisible vapour.
❷ Is a cloud made of smoke?
No — clouds are made of real, tiny water drops. That is why they can fall!
❸ If we drink a glass of water, what happens next?
It goes back out — into the air, the sink, the soil — and joins the trip again.
❹ What makes the water move up?
The sun. Warmth is the engine of the whole cycle.
Part two · Words to know
Six big words. Say them out loud — they feel funny in the mouth.
Tap a card to turn it over. The hard words are only hard because they are long. Six-year-olds can say all of these — and they love it.
Part three · Make it yourself
Rain in a bowl
You are going to build a sky inside the kitchen. Tick each box when your child does that step.
You will need
- 1A big clear glass bowl
- 2Warm water — grown-up boils or heats it
- 3A small plate or lid that sits on top
- 44–5 ice cubes (a frozen peas bag works too)
- 5Optional: one drop of blue food colouring
- 6A weather journal — paper and crayon
⚠︎ Hot water is a grown-up job. Child watches from the table edge.
0 of 6 steps done
What you are seeing: the warm water is evaporating. The cold plate is the chilly sky, so the vapour condenses on it. When the drops get too heavy they fall — that is precipitation. You just made the whole cycle in five minutes.
Part four · Look around the house
The cycle is hiding in ordinary places.
Point at these today. The moment a child realises the kettle is doing the same thing as the sea, the knowledge sticks for years.
A wet window
Warm air in the room hits cold glass and turns back into drops. That is how clouds are built.
Rain on the glass
The cloud got too full and let go. Count the drops together — can you get to sixty?
Water walking home
Every river on Earth is rain that found the downhill route back to the sea.
Part five · The game
The story of one little drop
Four drops fell out of the sky in the wrong order. Tap them in the right order to put the story back together — first tap fills box 1, then box 2, and so on.
Part six · Stand up and sing it
Up, Gather, Down, Home
Chant it four times with the actions. Children remember a rhyme long after they remember a page.
How to play it
Line 1: stand on your tippitoes and reach up slow. Line 2: make a big round cloud with your arms. Line 3: wiggle your fingers down like rain. Line 4: clap twice and spin once — round and round again!
Make it louder / quieter
Whisper the evaporation line (the water is invisible!), then get LOUD for the rain. Silly, and it works.
Swap a line
Ask your child to invent line 5. Snow? A puddle? A thirsty frog? Write it under the rhyme.
Part seven · Go outside
Five-minute weather hunt
Boots on. You only need to find three of these to count the mission as done — but tick every one you manage.
Part eight · Calm-down corner
Colour the water trail
Print this sheet. Ask your child to draw an arrow showing which way the water is travelling, and to write (or dictate) one word they learned today.
Also nice for a rainy five minutes
- ▸ Draw the sky right now, out of the window. Clouds or blue?
- ▸ Catch raindrops on a spoon. Count them. Are they big or small?
- ▸ Fold a paper boat and float it down the gutter stream.
- ▸ Write the letter C for cloud, cycle and collect — twenty times if they're enjoying it!
For the grown-up
Notes, targets and mix-ups
25–35 minutes · split it
Learning targets
- ▸ Name the four parts of the water cycle in order, using a picture.
- ▸ Spot evaporation and condensation in everyday life (kettle, window, breath).
- ▸ Sequence a short story — a pre-reading skill.
- ▸ Say and use four new long words without fear of them.
- ▸ Observe carefully, then draw what was really seen.
At six, magical thinking is the engine of learning. Expect and enjoy answers like:
- “The cloud is crying.” Lovely. Then: “What would the cloud be crying out of?”
- “Steam is smoke.” Do the kettle-and-cold-spoon test: smoke leaves a black mark, steam leaves water.
- “Rain comes from one big sky lake.” Draw the loop together and let them rub out the straight line.
- “The water stops existing in the drain.” Follow a drain with chalk on the pavement to a gully, a stream, a river.
- “Where do you think the water in this glass came from, a long time ago?”
- “What has to happen for a cloud to fall down?”
- “Why is the sea never full, even after all that rain?”
- “If you were a raindrop on top of a hill, which way would you go?”
- “What would the cycle look like if the sun went out for a week?”
Do the bowl experiment first, then the rhyme outside, then the hunt. Draw the four parts on four cards, shuffle them on the floor and have your child put them back in order while telling you the story. That is the whole lesson, no page needed.
- Counting: how many drops fell in one minute from your bowl-rain? Graph it with cubes.
- Reading: the four cycle words all start with a different letter — sort the magnetic letters.
- Art: sponge-print a cloud, then flick blue paint for rain (do this outside).
- Kindness: birds need a bath of water. Put out a shallow dish today.
Rainbow Badge — locked
Earn all 7 stars today and the badge unlocks with a splash.
Month 2 · Lesson 3 · coming up
Where the puddle goes
We follow rainwater down the street: drains, gullies, gutters and the great secret of what a sponge is doing. Plus: our first mud-pie engineering project.
Month 2 theme: The Weather Watchers · five lessons, one small scientist.