The Water Cycle

I found a great experiment to do with the kids to help them understand the water cycle. We set a small container inside a bigger bowl containing water then covered the bigger bowl with plastic wrap. We put a weight in the middle of the wrap so that it would all tilt towards the middle...where the smaller container was. We put it out in the sun and went back the next day to see what happened. Just like the water cycle, the water from the big bowl (ocean) evaporated up to the plastic wrap where it formed condensation (clouds). Once the condensation got too heavy, it slid down toward the magnet where it dripped into the small container (rain). The kids were so excited to see that it had "rained" into the smaller container. It was a great visual to help them understand the cycle!