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