Now it’s time to explore our own planet’s water cycle. As we’ve learned through Bong’s adventure on the Tiny Planet of Nature, the water cycle involves evaporation, condensation and, last but not least, rain.

On Earth, water evaporates from all kinds of bodies of water including lakes, rivers, seas, oceans, puddles and anyplace else that water collects.  When the sun heats the water up it turns into vapor and floats invisibly towards the sky.

Up in the sky, the temperature cools down and so does the water vapor. When this happens the water vapor turns back into a liquid and sticks together. This is called  condensation.  This condensed water forms clouds.

When the clouds become to heavy with this condensed water vapor, can you guess what happens? That’s right, get those umbrellas out because rain is on it’s way! And the process starts all over again. Pretty neat system, huh?

Any questions? No? Then let’s get started!

materials

• modeling clay
• clear bowl
• hot tap water
• clear plastic wrap
• small models of houses, plants, animals, etc. (optional)

 here’s what you do

• Using the modeling clay, make the banks of a river with the clay and make it long enough to go up all the way around the bowl about a third of the way up the sides.
• Add small models of houses, animals, plants, etc. to make it more lifelike (optional)
• Fill the bowl about one third full, up to the clay bank, with hot tap water.
• Stretch the plastic wrap over the bowl and seal the edges firmly.

what happened?

Watch as the water droplets appear on the inside of the plastic wrap and bowl. Can you guess where the water came from? The water will fall like rain from the plastic wrap and run down the sides of the bowl into the lake, just like it does here on Earth.