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Grade 4 Science · World 4: Water Cycle Falls · Level 27
Many Paths for Water
Trace different journeys a raindrop can take: rivers, the ground, ice, plants, and back to the air.
Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.
What children learn in Level 27
- The water cycle isn't one simple circle. A drop of water can take many different paths.
- Rain can run off the land into rivers, which flow to the ocean. Or it can soak into the ground and become groundwater, which wells can pump up.
- Snow on a mountain can stay frozen all winter, then melt in spring and rush down streams.
- Plants pull water up through their roots, and it goes back into the air from their leaves.
- So one drop might visit a cloud, a mountain, a tree, a river, and the ocean, in many different orders!
Georgia Standards of Excellence in Science:
- S4E3.b — Develop models to illustrate multiple pathways water may take during the water cycle (evaporation, condensation, and precipitation). (Clarification statement: Students should understand that the water cycle does not follow a single pathway.)