Water Cycle

About this resource

What happens to water after it rains? This is a complete kit for one idea, built for the table where children need different amounts of support. It starts with one drawn picture of the water cycle: a sun, a cloud, a hill, a lake and four arrows, one for each step: evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. Children read the picture, label it, circle the clues for one step, find the clue that does not belong, count a tray of clues, finish sentences from a box of words, read three sentences and circle the true one, and cut and paste onto four-box sort mats. The clues are plain events, like a puddle drying up, dew on the grass, snow falling and a pond filling after a storm. It comes with a tracker, a class grid and a family update, so nothing has to be written from scratch.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (30 pages)

• 15 student pages in 9 page types: Water Cycle Chart, Label the Water Cycle, Circle It, Match It, Which One Does Not Belong?, Count the Groups, Fill It In, Circle the True Sentence, and Cut and Paste
• 72 scored items on 14 pages, every answer read from the clue and meaning data, never typed by hand
• 32 short clues, 8 for each of the four steps, each in a short form for tiles and a full-sentence form for the harder pages
• 8 terms with a one-line meaning: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection, water cycle, water vapor, runoff and groundwater
• 24 cut-and-paste pieces on 3 sort mats (8 per mat, 2 for each of the four boxes)
• 2 answer keys, generated from the same data as the student pages
• 1 tracker (page, page type, items right, date) and 1 whole-class progress grid
• 1 team note (a hand-off page between team meetings) and 1 home page
• 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (16 observable-language starters), 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here and a how-to-read-a-page page

The Page Types, Easiest First

1. Water Cycle Chart (starting): the picture with its four numbered arrows, a card for each step with a one-line meaning, four more words to know, and a box for the child to write one thing they have seen.

2. Label the Water Cycle (2 dots): the same picture with the numbers mixed up. The child writes the step for each number from a box of six words (two are not part of the picture's steps).

3. Circle It, 2 pages (1 dot): four rows of four clues. Circle every clue for one step (evaporation, then precipitation), then write how many.

4. Match It, 1 page (2 dots): six words, eight meanings, write the letter. Two meanings are not used.

5. Which One Does Not Belong?, 2 pages (2 or 3 dots): four clues, three are one step. Set A circles the odd clue and writes its number; Set B also writes the step the other three are.

6. Count the Groups, 2 pages (2 dots): eight clues in a tray. Count how many belong to each of the four steps, then draw one.

7. Fill It In, 2 pages (2 or 3 dots): Set A reads a sentence and writes the step; Set B finishes a meaning from a box of eight words (three are not used).

8. Circle the True Sentence, 1 page (3 dots): a term and three sentences about it; exactly one is true.

9. Cut and Paste, 3 pages (1, 2 or 3 dots): four labeled boxes and a block of 8 pieces that touch edge to edge, so cutting is a few straight lines. Paste 1 and 2 sort short clues; Paste 3 sorts full sentences.

One Picture, Then Words

The only drawing is the water cycle picture, made of shapes, and it is used on the chart and on the label page. Everything else is words in big rounded tiles. There are no photographs or clip art, and no numbers, temperatures or units to learn.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, one short instruction, large rounded type, big answer boxes, and dots (not words or colors) to show which level a page is. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult. Pages with writing have room to write, and the drawing boxes are about an inch and a half to two inches tall. The file prints clean in black and white.

No Guessing The Answer

Wherever a child picks among printed spots (which clues in a row match, which one is the odd clue, which lettered sentence is true, where a word sits in the box, the order of the pieces on the cut strip), the position of the right answer is checked so it does not sit in the same spot three times in a row. The wrong sentences on the true-sentence page are real meanings of other terms, so a child has to read.

Type In, Or Print

The name line and every answer box are type-in fields in any PDF reader: click one, type, then save. The same goes for the tracker, the class grid, the team note and the home page. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Elementary classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, and any teacher building a water cycle lesson into a center, a small group or a morning work folder. The reading is written at about a grade 2-3 level, and the teacher can read each clue aloud.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A water cycle worksheet set with the record-keeping around it. It is not a timed test, a screener, a clinical tool, or a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. There is no IEP goal language or eligibility wording anywhere in the file.