What is the water cycle? - Worksheet - Year 4

The water cycle is a fundamental environmental process that describes how water moves and changes state throughout the Earth's atmosphere and surface. It's a continuous cycle where water evaporates from oceans, lakes, and rivers into the air, condenses to form clouds, and then precipitates back to the ground as rain, snow, or other forms of moisture. This cycle is crucial for maintaining life on Earth, as it distributes water resources and helps to regulate the planet's climate. A worksheet for Year 4 students may include a diagram depicting the stages of the water cycle, such as evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection, to aid in their understanding of this natural phenomenon.

The worksheet may also prompt students to think about how different states of matter, specifically solids, liquids, and gases, can change from one state to another. For example, water (liquid) evaporates to become water vapour (gas), and when it cools, it condenses into clouds (tiny water droplets or solids in the form of ice crystals) before falling back to Earth as precipitation. This process of changing states is a key component of the water cycle and is essential for students to understand how the cycle functions. The worksheet, created by Focus Education (UK) Ltd, is likely to encourage students to use the provided diagram to explain these processes in their own words.