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You may play solo or with a partner!

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In this free science game, students use photosynthesis, rain, and groundwater to control Earth's water cycle and beat a tricky competitor!

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Watch before the practice quiz!

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See how surface water gets into the atmosphere and how water vapor condenses to form rain clouds. . .which then get your feet wet and turns into surface water again!

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Look at the steps. We will work on this during small groups!

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Do your kids ask you why it rains? Or maybe how clouds happen? Spend an afternoon teaching them with this easy to do science experiment where you and your kids will make a water cycle in a bag!

This is also a great activity for elementary science classes. Imagine your window covered in your student's shimmering water cycle experiments!

Follow these simple, step-by-step directions to create something fun (and educational) with your kids today.

Watch this video to see how it's done:

Step 1: What You'll Need

You need just a few common household items to create your water cycle display:

Step 2: Decorate the Bag

Before you do anything else, decorate your bag!

Use your permenant marker (washable markers will wash right off) to draw a sky in the upper half of your plastic bag. Include clouds and the sun, as they are important elements to the water cycle.

Step 3: Prepare the Water

Next, fill a cup with regular tap water. Then add a couple of drops of blue food coloring to it to make it stand out. Swirl the cup of water a few times to mix the coloring until it's a nice, solid blue.

Now, carefully pour the water into the plastic bag and zip it closed. Make sure it's nice and tight! You don't want any water to be able to escape.

Step 4: Hang Up the Bag

Once your water has been added to the bag and it's sealed up, it's time to hang it up on a window! Pick a window that gets a lot of sunshine for best results. Cut two long pieces of tape and stick them to the corners of your bag. Then, press the tape tightly to the window - you don't want your bag to fall down!

Step 5: Wait and Observe

Wait a couple of hours and check on your experiment. You should see a change in your bag between two hours and 1 day (depending on the amount of sun and the time of day you started).

Eventually, you will begin to see droplets of water sticking to the side of the bag. Some of these will be up high (in the clouds) while other droplets will be on their way back down (like rain).

Why is this happening? It's because the water in the bag is being heated up against the sunny window. That water turns into a gas through the process called evaporation. In nature, evaporated water vapor goes into the atmosphere, but in our bag, it has nowhere to go, so it ends up sticking to the sides of the bag, turning back into a liquid as condensation. That condensed water then slides back into the pool of water below as "rain".

Keep checking back on your experiment a few times a day, or anytime it's sunny to see the water cycle progress!

With some simple materials and a weekend afternoon, you and your kids can have a great time learning about the water cycle together.

If you enjoyed making your Water Cycle in a Bag, try our other Building Up STEAM activities and experiments!

Colors and Chemicals

If you have curious little ones running around the house, or are looking for a fun activity for your lower elementary kids, this is a great way to spend an afternoon they'll ask to do again and again. It's a simple "baking soda and vinegar" experiment, but with an artistic twist!

Homemade Hovercraft

With just a few common items, in under a half-hour you could have a desktop-sized hovercraft zipping all over the place! It's great for a science project, a classroom demonstration, or a rainy day.

Pencil Poke Trick

Learn how you can run a sharpened pencil all the way through a plastic bag filled with water without spilling a drop. All you need are some sharpened pencils, a plastic bag filled with water, and our secret technique!

Levitating Ping Pong Ball

Perform the impossible when you make an ordinary ping pong ball float in mid-air! Learn how to do this super cool science feat in just a few minutes.

Water Density Rainbow

Visually learn about water density with this easy-to-do experiment with beautiful results. By "stacking" sugar water of varying densities in a test tube you can create a stunning display of science in action.

DIY Ice Cream

With just a few ingredients and our technique, you'll be scooping up your own frosty treats in no time. Science never tasted so good!

About Mobile Ed Productions:
Mobile Ed Productions, Inc. has been in business since 1979, producing educational, entertaining school assemblies and hands-on workshops. Based out of Michigan, the company creates, designs, markets and distributes innovative ways to make learning fun in the form of live presentations and interactive exhibits.

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How to Make a Water Cycle in a Bag | STEAM Activity for Kids

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Do your kids ask you why it rains? Or maybe how clouds happen? Spend an afternoon teaching them with this easy to do science experiment where you and your kids will make a water cycle in a bag! This is also a great activity for elementary science classes.

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Earth's water is always in movement, and the natural water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. Water is always changing states between liquid, vapor, and ice, with these processes happening in the blink of an eye and over millions of years.

* Water Science School HOME * The Water Cycle *

What is the water cycle? I can easily answer that-it is "me" all over! The water cycle describes the existence and movement of water on, in, and above the Earth. Earth's water is always in movement and is always changing states, from liquid to vapor to ice and back again.

The water cycle has been working for billions of years and all life on Earth depends on it continuing to work; the Earth would be a pretty stale place without it.

A summary of the water cycle

You may think that every drop of rain that falls from the sky, or each glass of water that you drink, is brand new, but it has always been here and is a part of the water cycle.

The heat of the sun provides energy to make the water cycle work.

The sun evaporates water from the oceans into water vapor.

This invisible vapor rises into the atmosphere, where the air is colder.

The colder air causes water vapor to condense into water droplets and clouds.

Volcanoes can produce steam, which forms clouds.

In the atmosphere, air currents move clouds all around the Earth.

Water drops form in clouds, which then fall to Earth as precipitation (rain and snow).

In cold climates, precipitation builds up as snow, ice, and glaciers.

Snow can melt, becoming runoff, which flows into rivers, the oceans, and into the ground.

Some ice evaporates directly into the air, skipping the melting phase (sublimation).

Rainfall on land flows downhill as runoff, providing water to lakes, rivers, and the oceans.

Some rain soaks into the ground, as infiltration, and, if deep enough, becomes groundwater.

Water from lakes and rivers can seep into the ground.

Water moves underground because of gravity and pressure.

Groundwater close to the land surface is taken up by plants.

Some groundwater seeps into rivers and lakes, and can flow to the surface as springs.

Plants take up groundwater and evapotranspire, or evaporate, it from their leaves.

Some groundwater goes very deep into the ground and stays there for a long time.

Groundwater flows into the oceans, keeping the water cycle going.

Status - Completed

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Earth's water is always in movement, and the natural water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. Water is always changing states between liquid, vapor, and ice, with these processes happening in the blink of an eye and over millions of years.

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© Contributed by Leanne Guenther
Run and get a glass of water and put it on the table next to you. Take a good long look at the water. Now -- can you guess how old it is?

The water in your glass may have fallen from the sky as rain just last week, but the water itself has been around pretty much as long as the earth has!

When the first fish crawled out of the ocean onto the land, your glass of water was part of that ocean. When the Brontosaurus walked through lakes feeding on plants, your glass of water was part of those lakes. When kings and princesses, knights and squires took a drink from their wells, your glass of water was part of those wells.
And you thought your parents were OLD
The earth has a limited amount of water. That water keeps going around and around and around and around and (well, you get the idea) in what we call the "Water Cycle".

This cycle is made up of a few main parts:

evaporation (and transpiration)

condensation

precipitation

collection

Evaporation:

Evaporation is when the sun heats up water in rivers or lakes or the ocean and turns it into vapor or steam. The water vapor or steam leaves the river, lake or ocean and goes into the air.

Do plants sweat?

Well, sort of.... People perspire (sweat) and plants transpire. Transpiration is the process by which plants lose water out of their leaves. Transpiration gives evaporation a bit of a hand in getting the water vapor back up into the air.

Condensation:

Water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into liquid, forming clouds. This is called condensation.

You can see the same sort of thing at home... Pour a glass of cold water on a hot day and watch what happens. Water forms on the outside of the glass. That water didn't somehow leak through the glass! It actually came from the air. Water vapor in the warm air, turns back into liquid when it touches the cold glass.

Precipitation:

Precipitation occurs when so much water has condensed that the air cannot hold it anymore. The clouds get heavy and water falls back to the earth in the form of rain, hail, sleet or snow.

Collection:

When water falls back to earth as precipitation, it may fall back in the oceans, lakes or rivers or it may end up on land. When it ends up on land, it will either soak into the earth and become part of the "ground water" that plants and animals use to drink or it may run over the soil and collect in the oceans, lakes or rivers where the cycle starts

Water Cycle Activity Pages.

Print these out and use them as posters or coloring pages. Sheets 2 thru 4 have some suggested activities you can do at home to demonstrate the Water Cycle.

Sheet 1 - ( color) or ( B&W)

Sheet 2 - ( color) or ( B&W)

Sheet 3 - ( color) or ( B&W)

Sheet 4 - ( color) or ( B&W)

Sheet 5 - ( color) or ( B&W)
Check out the Spanish version of the Water Cycle >

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© Contributed by Leanne Guenther Run and get a glass of water and put it on the table next to you. Take a good long look at the water. Now -- can you guess how old it is?

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With a partner, write a short paragraph about the journey that one water drop makes through the water cycle.

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National Geographic Society is celebrating Earth and, this month only, you can make TWICE the impact. Donate to National Geographic Society and help us make remarkable discoveries about the ocean's intelligent marine life. The planet and our Explorers are counting on you.

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The National Geographic Society is a global non-profit organization committed to exploring, illuminating, and protecting the wonder of our world.