This is a study helper. Use it to learn it. Read it. Hear it. Say it in your own words. That is how it sticks.

The Water Cycle

Water moves around and around Earth. It never stops. This page shows you how, step by step, in plain words.

The sun’s heat drives the whole cycle.

Pick your grade

Same water cycle. Two ways to learn it. Pick the one that fits you.

Tap the Listen button on any card to hear it read out loud.

Elementary

Grades 1–5

The cycle, in a picture

Now the same cycle in words. You can learn the whole cycle from these words alone.

1Water rises. The sun heats water in lakes and seas. The water turns into vapor you cannot see. It floats up.
2Clouds form. High up, the air is cold. The water turns back into tiny drops. Lots of tiny drops together make a cloud.
3Rain falls. The drops join up. They get big and heavy. Then they fall down as rain or snow.
4Water gathers. The water lands in lakes, rivers, and seas. Some soaks into the ground. Then the sun heats it, and it all starts again.

Step 1 of 4

Water rises up

The big word is evaporation.

The sun heats the water. The water turns into vapor. Vapor is water in the air. You cannot see it.

The vapor rises up into the sky.

Most of this happens over the oceans. The oceans are very big.

Step 2 of 4

Clouds form

The big word is condensation.

High up in the sky, the air is cold. The vapor gets cold too.

It turns back into tiny drops of water. Lots and lots of tiny drops make a cloud.

A cloud is just tiny drops of water floating in the air.

See it at home: Look at a cold glass of water on a warm day. Drops form on the outside of the glass. Those drops did not leak out. They came from the air. The cold glass cooled the air next to it, and water in the air turned into drops. That is condensation.

Step 3 of 4

Rain falls down

The big word is precipitation.

The tiny drops in the cloud bump into each other. They join up. They get bigger and heavier.

When they are too heavy to float, they fall.

Water can fall as rain, snow, sleet, or hail.

Step 4 of 4

Water gathers

The big word is collection.

The fallen water gathers in oceans, lakes, and rivers.

Some water soaks down into the ground.

Then the sun heats the water again. The whole thing starts over.

Words to know

Vapor: Water that has turned into a gas in the air. You cannot see it.
Evaporation: Water turning into vapor and rising up.
Condensation: Vapor turning back into tiny drops of water.
Precipitation: Water falling from clouds: rain, snow, sleet, or hail.
Collection: Water gathering in oceans, lakes, rivers, and the ground.
Cycle: Something that goes around and around, again and again.

One last true thing

The cycle has no start and no end. It just goes around and around.

Earth uses the same water again and again. No new water is made.

The water you drink today is very, very old — dinosaurs drank the same water. The water itself gets used over and over. That is really true.

Too easy? Try the next grade up →Middle School · Grades 6–8 · Three more steps and the mix-up words

Middle School

Grades 6–8

The cycle at a glance

The full cycle, in words. A reader who never looks at the picture still gets the whole cycle here.

1Evaporation. The sun heats liquid water. It turns into invisible water vapor and rises. Most evaporation is from the oceans. Plants add more vapor through transpiration.
2Condensation. High up, the vapor cools. It turns back into tiny liquid drops. Those drops are what clouds are made of.
3Precipitation. Drops join together, get heavy, and fall as rain, snow, sleet, or hail.
4Collection. Fallen water gathers in oceans, lakes, and rivers. Some flows over land as runoff. Some soaks in and is stored as groundwater. Then the sun heats it, and the cycle repeats.

The cycle has no start and no end. Earth reuses the same water again and again.

Step 1

Evaporation

The sun’s heat drives the water cycle. Heat gives water the energy to change.

In evaporation, liquid water turns into water vapor. Vapor is a gas. It is invisible.

The vapor rises into the air. Most evaporation is from the oceans, because the oceans cover so much of Earth.

Step 2

Condensation

As vapor rises, it cools. Cold air high up changes it back into liquid.

In condensation, vapor turns into tiny liquid drops. A cloud is a huge group of these tiny drops.

You can see condensation at home: drops form on the outside of a cold glass. That water came from the air, not from inside the glass.

Step 3

Precipitation

Inside a cloud, tiny drops join together. They grow bigger and heavier.

When a drop is too heavy to stay in the air, gravity pulls it down. That falling water is precipitation.

Precipitation falls as rain, snow, sleet, or hail. Which one you get depends on how cold the air is.

Step 4

Collection

Fallen water gathers in oceans, lakes, and rivers. That gathering is collection.

Some water soaks into the ground instead. Either way, the water is stored until the sun heats it and evaporation starts the cycle again.

There is no start and no end. Earth reuses the same water again and again.

Added step

Transpiration

Plants are part of the cycle too.

Plants take in water through their roots. Then they release water vapor from their leaves into the air. That release is called transpiration.

Plainly put: plants breathe out water vapor, and that vapor joins the cycle just like vapor from the oceans.

Added step

Runoff

Not all rain soaks in. Some of it flows over the land.

Runoff is water flowing over land, moving downhill. Streams and rivers carry runoff toward lakes and oceans.

Heavy rain makes more runoff, because the ground cannot soak up water that fast.

Added step

Groundwater

Some water soaks deep into the ground. It fills tiny spaces in soil and rock.

Water stored under the ground is called groundwater.

People pump groundwater from wells to drink. It is a stored part of the cycle, not separate from it.

Words people mix up

Evaporation and condensation are opposites. One turns liquid into gas. The other turns gas back into liquid.

EvaporationLiquid water → invisible vapor. It needs heat. Water goes up into the air.

CondensationInvisible vapor → liquid drops. It happens when vapor cools. Clouds and dew form this way.

Memory hook: Evaporation = water exits the surface. Condensation = vapor comes back as drops.

Where Earth’s water is

Almost all of Earth’s water is in the oceans, and ocean water is salt water. Only a small part is fresh water — the kind people, plants, and land animals need.

97%of Earth’s water is in the oceans (salt water)

3%of Earth’s water is fresh

That is why the cycle matters: the small fresh share gets cleaned and reused as water evaporates, condenses, and falls again.

Words to know

Water vapor: Water in gas form. It is invisible and mixed into the air.
Evaporation: Liquid water turning into vapor and rising. Driven by the sun’s heat.
Condensation: Vapor cooling and turning back into tiny liquid drops. The opposite of evaporation.
Precipitation: Water falling from clouds as rain, snow, sleet, or hail.
Collection: Fallen water gathering in oceans, lakes, rivers, and the ground.
Transpiration: Plants releasing water vapor from their leaves.
Runoff: Water flowing over land, moving downhill.
Groundwater: Water stored under the ground, in soil and rock.

The big idea

The water cycle has no start and no end. The sun’s heat keeps it moving, and Earth reuses the same water again and again.

The water you drank today has been through this cycle more times than anyone can count.

← Want it simpler? Try the grade belowElementary · Grades 1–5 · Bigger text, fewer words, same cycle