A Year 4 science reading sheet on the water cycle, over four pages. Page 1 is a short story told by a raindrop called Splash, with evaporation, condensation and precipitation printed in bold. Page 2 has six questions in answer boxes. Page 3 asks pupils to draw and label four stages in a circle of numbered boxes, using a word bank. The fourth page is the key. It supports the England National Curriculum Year 4 objective on evaporation and condensation.
Science - States of matter
“identify the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and associate the rate of evaporation with temperature”
Questions 1, 3 and 5 name each stage, and questions 2 and 4 ask what causes evaporation and condensation. The rate of evaporation is not covered.
Science - Working scientifically
“recording findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts, and tables”
Question 7 asks pupils to draw and label the four stages as a cycle.
Three paragraphs in the first person. Splash is warmed in the sea, rises as water vapour, cools into a cloud, falls on a mountain, runs down a stream into a river and returns to the sea. A cartoon raindrop sits above the waves.
Six questions with a box each. Three ask pupils to name a stage. The others ask what warmed the raindrop, what made the vapour condense and why the drop fell from the cloud.
Four numbered boxes joined by arrows in a circle. The word bank reads Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation and Collection in rivers and sea.
Short answers for questions 1 to 6, then what belongs in each box of the cycle, in clockwise order.
Read aloud
Read the story to the class and ask pupils to raise a hand each time they hear the name of a stage.
Retell first
Pupils retell the journey in four sentences with a partner before they fill in the cycle on page 3.
Drawing time
Question 7 asks for a drawing as well as a label, so give pupils coloured pencils and a few minutes.
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