The water
goes round
and round!
The same splash of water has been travelling the whole world for millions of years. It climbs up, makes a cloud, falls down as rain, and runs back home to the sea. Tap the picture to wake it up! 👇
Hi! I’m Drip the water drop. 👋 Tap the sun, the cloud or the lake and I’ll tell you my secrets!
Round and round
it goes…
There is no beginning and no end. Press play and ride around with me!
The four big words
-
Evaporation
The sun warms water and it floats up as invisible vapour. “Va-pour” means water-air!
-
Condensation
High up it’s cold. Water-air huddles together and turns into tiny drops — a cloud!
-
Precipitation
A big word for a small splash: rain, snow, sleet or hail falling down.
-
Collection
Water gathers in puddles, rivers, lakes and the sea — ready to start again.
Four parts of
one big loop
The sun shines down on the sea and makes the water warm and light. Warm water turns into invisible vapour and floats way up into the sky — like steam off your hot cocoa. 🍫
Up high, the air is very cold ❄️. The tiny water bits bump into each other and hold on tight. Millions and millions of them together make a fluffy cloud. That cloud is water — honest!
The cloud gets too full and heavy. The drops can’t hang on any longer — down they come! If it’s warm we call it rain 🌧️. If it’s freezing cold we call it snow ⛄. Same water, different clothes!
Rainwater runs down the hills, fills the streams and rivers, and everyone splashes together in the sea 🌊. Some hides underground for a long, long sleep. Then the sun comes out… and it all starts again!
The Water Cycle Chant
- Sun comes out and warms the sea, 🙌 wiggle your fingers upwards
- Water floats away — one, two, three! 🎈 reach up high
- Cold up high makes a cloud, ☁️ hug yourself big
- Rain comes down — splish, splash, loud! 👇 stomp and pat
- Into the river, into the sea… 🌊 sway side to side
- Round and round, and round it goes — 🔄 spin a big circle
- Where it stops? Nobody knows! 🤔 shrug and giggle
Can you help Drip
find the way?
…
You are a Water Wizard!
You got 0 out of 5. Now go and tell somebody the four big words!
Things that will
make you go “WHAT?!”
Dinosaur water!
The water in your glass is billions of years old. A stegosaurus drank this same puddle. Yuck — or yummy?
No new water
Earth makes zero new water. We just reuse the same water, forever and ever and ever.
Rain + sun = magic
When the sun shines while it’s still raining, you might catch a rainbow. That’s sunlight bending inside drops.
You are a puddle
Most of your body is made of water. Your brain is about three-quarters water!
Clouds float, then fall
A cloud is squillions of drops so tiny they float. When they join up and get heavy — splat!
Where does it go?
Water that goes down the drain travels to a cleaning place, then back to a river. The cycle never ends.
Build a rain cloud
in a jar
Ask a grown-up to pour hot water in a jar
About 5 centimetres is plenty. Hot water makes lots of vapour — that’s step one of the cycle, evaporation!
Put ice on a plate, then sit the plate on top
The cold plate is like the freezing sky. The vapour goes up, gets cold, and huddles into a cloud — condensation.
Wait a minute and watch inside
Fog appears, drops get heavy, and they fall down the sides. You made rain! 🌧️
Draw what you saw
Sun, cloud, rain, puddle. Stick four arrows in a circle. Now you’ve drawn the water cycle like a scientist.