A cloze passage follows one water drop from the ocean to the sky and back into rock, soil, and plants in this 3-page 5th grade worksheet. Students fill 14 blanks from a 16-word bank that hides two distractors, fossil and weathering. Across three parts, the passage moves from evaporation and precipitation to the spheres working as one system, in line with NGSS 5-ESS2-1. A challenge question about rain on a mountain closes the sheet.
5-ESS2-1
“Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.”
Part 2, where rain meets the geosphere and plant roots link in the biosphere, and the Challenge Question on rain falling on a mountain.
Sixteen terms, from atmosphere to weathering. Two of them are extras that students will not need.
Seven blanks trace the drop from the oceans as water vapor, up into the atmosphere, through condensation into clouds, and back down as rain, snow, or hail.
Six blanks follow the rain into the soil and rock as groundwater, back into rivers, and up through plant roots until it leaves the leaves by transpiration.
One final blank names the parts of Earth as one giant system that shares matter.
Students write one sentence on how the hydrosphere and geosphere interact when it rains on a mountain. The key accepts answers about carving rivers or soaking in as groundwater.
Shared reading
Read Part 1 aloud as a class, saying blank at each gap, then let students fill the passage from the bank on their own.
Diagram partner
Have students draw a water cycle on the back and use each filled word as a label. Check that groundwater and transpiration make it onto the drawing, since Part 2 adds them after the main loop.
Exit ticket
The Challenge Question on its own works as an exit ticket after a water cycle lesson. One sentence is enough to show whether students see two spheres at work.
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