THE WATER CYCLE
YEAR 3 GEOGRAPHY
WATER ON EARTH
From space, Earth looks like a marble. The water that covers most of the
planet makes it look blue. The Earth’s lands are green and brown, and the
clouds floating above Earth are white. Without water, there could not be
life on Earth. Plants, animals, and people needs water to live.
Water is important to Earth’s environment, most of the water on Earth is
found in the oceans, this water is salt water. Only a little of Earth’s water if
fresh water, you can find this fresh water in rivers, streams, lakes and
ponds.
FRESH WATER
The water that falls to Earth is fresh water. This water flows over the
ground and into rivers and streams. Ponds and most lakes also hold fresh
water.
There is also fresh water under the Earth’s surface. This is called ground
water. This gets there when rain soaks into the soil, it then moves down
through the soil and broken rocks until it reaches a bed of solid rock. A lot
of the Earth’s fresh water is stored underground as ground water.
JUST A DROP OF WATER
A single drop of water can change and go on a long journey. It can travel
through the sky and underground, travel through rivers and the ocean.
• Transpiration is the evaporation of water or the
loss of water from plants, especially leaves.
• It happens because the plant opens its pores in
order to get carbon dioxide gas from the air for
photosynthesis.
• Transpiration also cools plants and enables the
flow of mineral nutrients from roots to shoots.
Water Cycle Vocabulary