A Year 4 science sheet on the water cycle, over three pages. The first page shows one diagram with a Sun, rising arrows, a cloud, rain on a hill, a river and the sea, each with a numbered pointer. Pupils fill in six labels from a word bank. The second page asks four short questions, including naming three kinds of precipitation. The third page is the answer 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”
Pointers 2 and 3 name evaporation and condensation, and questions 1 and 2 ask what drives the first and what forms from the second. The rate of evaporation is not covered here.
Science - Working scientifically
“recording findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts, and tables”
Pupils complete a labelled diagram with six scientific terms and answer in full sentences.
Pupils write a label for each of six numbered pointers. The word bank holds Condensation, Evaporation, Precipitation (rain), River (collection), The sea and The Sun, and each word is used once.
Four questions to answer in full sentences. They ask what gives the energy for evaporation, what forms when water vapour cools, for three kinds of precipitation, and where the river takes the water.
The six labels, then a model sentence for each question. Any three of rain, snow, sleet and hail are accepted for question 3.
After a demonstration
Boil a kettle near a cold tile or window, let pupils watch the drops form, then hand out the sheet so they can name each stage they saw.
Vocabulary check
Ask pupils to cover the word bank for pointers 3 and 4 and see who can write condensation and precipitation unaided.
Early finishers
Pupils add arrows to the diagram to show the order of the stages, then say where they think the cycle starts.
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