I am student teaching at a school in philadelphia. It is very hard to keep the kids focused and quiet during any lesson. I now have to do a lesson on the water cycle and need help. I have to explain to them evaporation and condensation in a way that not only they will understand but will also be entertaining. This students have to be hands on at all times or I will lose them. I read all about the water cycle song and that is wonderful but I need to find a way to demostrate evaporation and condensation to them. I only have 45 minutes to do this lesson so I am unable to watch and wait hours to observe water evaporating. Any suggestions? I could use all the help you can offer!!

[jcgy7]

condensation is easy enough - get a metal can and show the kids that it's dry, be a little silly with it, is there any water? Are you sure? Look again. I think there's water. Etc. Then put in ice and water and wait a few minutes. While waiting read to them from a book about the water cycle or do your song or whatever, and then have them look at the can again. Obviously it's not modeling evaporation per se, but you could try to impress upon them that what they're seeing is water vapor that was in the air and the water vapor got there by the process of eVAPORation. Maybe also after that have them brainstorm some things that water evaporates from in their house or classroom and then have them draw and label a picture of the water cycle or color one that's already been drawn and label it, whichever. Good luck!

[Phyllis]

If the classroom has a chalkboard, as opposed to a white board, you can wipe a streak across it with a damp cloth.The wet streak will be readily apparent. Almost immediately it dries because the water evaporated. Wet hands or hair also dry very quickly, helped by body heat. That's evaporation too. You will think of other things you can dampen so that the wetness is visible, but will dry quickly.

[Angie]

I teach 2nd and we just finished the water cycle. I have a banana slug string band video and it has a song about the water cycle that has lots of good information in it. The kids loved that. I then had them pretend that they were a water molecule. I told them I was the sun shining down on them and asked them what was going to happen. Someone said that they were going to go up in the sky. I told them that was evaporation. I then told everyone to evaporate. They all stood up and I asked what happened next. They said that we needed to make a cloud. I had them all gather in the middle of the room really close together. No one could remember what that was called, so I had to tell them. Then I told them that they were getting really heavy and it was cold outside. THey said that they would be snow when they fell. I reminded then this was precipitation. I had them precipitate back to their desks. We repeated this a few times using the vocabulary we were learning. They loved this. Another thing I did was just an activity out of our science book. I took warm water and put it in a cup with saran wrap over it. We put it on my overhead for thirty minutes. We moved on to something else and came back to the cup of water later.

[teachjam]

We sing the Water Cycle Song sung to the tune of "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain."
I think I got it off this site:

Water travels in a cycle, yes it does
Water travels in a cycle, yes it does
It goes UP as evaporation,
Forms clouds as condensation
And FALLS Down as precipitaion
Yes, it does.

We sing it many times as we make a picture to show the cycle.
I also have members hold a cloud, sun, raindrop, etc. while we sing.
We sing it daily while we perform experiments to show each step. With my electric teapot I have steam forming condensation on my cool fish tank, then eventually forming "RAIN" as it falls back down as precipitation. Hope this helps. teachjam

Great. i use these type of things all the time
janet staples
janet.staplespps.k12.us.va.

easy and great. older kids could, time the evaporation of different streaks.
thanks
janet.staplespps.k12.va.us

Several years ago I taught first and was observed on a water cycle lesson. Central to my lesson was Drippy the Raindrop. I used materials I found on the Internet. Google Drippy the Raindrop and see what you can find. I remember this lesson went very well. I'm sure I tailored the Internet materials to match my lesson objectives. What made the lesson exciting for the kids was the Drippy handouts (they may have been a book or coloring page.) I wish I could remember more for you.