The water cycle in nature: information for children and adults

It is simply necessary to tell children about water and its properties, because water today is not only an expensive and valuable resource, it is also a very limited resource. The supply of fresh water on Earth is gradually decreasing and, if we do not begin to treat this substance with care, it is quite possible that in the near future our children and grandchildren will have to seriously think about this problem. Therefore, it is very important that from an early age, even in kindergarten, children are given classes the purpose of which is to convey information about nature, including water, and its role for us.

It is also necessary to conduct classes on such topics in schools. After all, at school age, although children know a lot about water, they do not know it in as much detail and as well as we would like. The contribution of parents also plays a significant role in raising a child. After all, children repeat everything after adults and immaculately follow their example. Therefore, children need to be taught not only in kindergartens and schools, but also at home, by personal example.

What is the water cycle in nature

Scheme
The water cycle is a natural process that is a continuous exchange of moisture between the hydrosphere, atmosphere and earth's surface, consisting of the processes of evaporation, movement of water vapor in the atmosphere, its condensation in the atmosphere and precipitation.

This cycle involves a change in the state of aggregation of water: it changes its liquid or solid form to a gaseous one, and then after some time returns to its previous state. During this change, it takes up and moves a huge number of different organic and mineral compounds, which support life on Earth.

As you know, the most voluminous sources of water are the oceans. They contain about 97.5% of all the planet’s water reserves. It is for this reason that most natural liquids contain various salts. Fresh water sources account for 2.5% of the Earth's total water supply. If we take this 2.5% as 100%, then:

• glaciers and eternal snow masses make up 68.9% of them;
• underground and groundwater (this also includes soil moisture in swampy areas and permafrost zones) amounts to 30.8%;
• rivers and lakes account for only 0.3%.

Definition for children

Physical states of water

Diagram for children
At a temperature of 0°C, water turns into ice. This happens in a river, lake, puddle, etc.

Tiny pieces of ice also form high in the clouds. There they enlarge, transform into snowflakes, and then fall to the ground. This is how snow is formed. Ice and snow are water in a solid state.

We wiped the chalkboard with a wet cloth. After a few minutes the board became dry. Water from its surface evaporated (turned into steam - a transparent, colorless gas. Water vapor is water in a gaseous state. In nature, water evaporates from the surface of the seas, soil, etc. The air always contains invisible water vapor. Invisible vapor rises. The air high above the earth is always cold. The steam cools and forms many water droplets or tiny pieces of ice. From these droplets clouds are formed. From them, water returns in the form of rain and snow. This is how the water cycle occurs in nature.

To prepare the material for children, a textbook on the world around us was used, part 1, author Pleshakov A. A.

Properties of water

Let's explore the properties of water... We will need: glasses of water, a glass of milk, sticks or teaspoons, cocktail straws, sand, granulated sugar, pieces of ice, lumps of snow, a thermos with hot water, glass or a mirror, watercolor paints.

Study 1 . The water is clear. Take two glasses: one with water, the other with milk. Place chopsticks or spoons in both glasses. In which of the cups are they visible and in which are they not? Why? (We have milk and water in front of us, we see a stick in a glass of water, but not in a glass of milk).

Conclusion : the water is clear, but the milk is not.

Think about what would happen if the river water was opaque? For example, fairy tales talk about milk rivers with jelly banks. Could fish and other animals live in such rivers of milk?

Study 2. Water has no taste. Taste water, juice or milk. Does water have taste? (When a person is very thirsty, he drinks water with pleasure, and to express his pleasure, he says: “What delicious water,” although in fact he does not taste it.)

Study 3. Water has no smell. Smell the water and say what it smells like or doesn’t smell at all. For comparison, try smelling water to which aromatic substances (perfume, bath salts) have been added. However, it can be emphasized that the water from the tap may have an odor, since it is purified with special substances so that it is safe for our health.

Study 4. Ice is solid water. Take ice cubes. Place them in separate cups. Observe what happens to them in a warm room. Also take one large ice cube and several small ones. Observe which one melts faster: the big one or the small one.

Conclusion : ice and snow are also water.

Study 5. Steam is also water. Take a thermos with boiling water or a kettle with boiling water (electric). Open the lid. You see steam. Place a glass or mirror over the steam. Droplets of water will appear on it.

Study 6. Water is liquid and can flow. Take two glasses - one with water, the other empty. Carefully pour water from one to the other. Is water flowing? Why? (Because it is liquid.) If water were not liquid, it would not be able to flow in rivers and streams, nor would it flow from a tap.

Conclusion: Since water is liquid and can flow, it is called a liquid.

Under the influence of gravity, it always flows in the direction of lower water. The flow of water is a great force. People use it to operate the water wheel. The water turns the wheel, and the wheel turns the millstones, which grind the grain into flour. a water mill works .

hydroelectric power station has a similar device . In it, a wheel - a turbine - rotates a special machine that generates electric current.

Study 7. Water is a good solvent.

There are two glasses of water in front of you. Put regular sand in one of them and try to stir it with a spoon. What happens? Has the sand dissolved or not? Take another glass and pour a spoonful of granulated sugar into it, stir it. What happened now? In which of the cups did the sand dissolve?

There is sand at the bottom of the aquarium. Will it dissolve or not? What would be. What if they put granulated sugar instead of regular sand on the bottom of the aquarium? What if there was granulated sugar at the bottom of the river? (It would dissolve in water, and then it would be impossible to stand at the bottom of the river).

Now stir the watercolor paint in a glass of water. Why did the water become colored? (The paint has dissolved in it.)

Where in life does a person use the property of water solubility?….. That’s right, we can prepare lemonade, compote, make tea sweet and soup salty. Washing powder dissolves in water.

Study 8. Ice is lighter than water

Tell me, what will happen to an ice cube if it is placed in a glass of water? Will it sink, float, or immediately dissolve?

Let's check it experimentally: put an ice cube in a glass of water. Ice floats in water. It is lighter than water, so it does not sink. Leave the ice in the cups and see what happens to it.

Study 9. Water can be warm, cold, hot. In front of you are glasses of water of different temperatures. Gently test with your finger or a thermometer which glass contains cold water and which glass contains hot water.

How can you get warm water? You can continue the previous experiment (No. 8) by comparing the temperature of the water before ice was put in it and after it melted. Why did the water become colder?

Do you know that in rivers, lakes, and seas there is also water with different temperatures: both warm and cold. Some fish, animals, plants, snails can live only in warm water, others - only in cold water.

If you were a fish, what kind of water would you choose - warm or cold? Where do you think there are more different plants and animals - in warm seas or in cold ones?

Indeed, fewer different animals live in cold seas and rivers.

By the way, there are such unusual places in nature where very hot water comes out of the ground to the surface. These are geysers . They, like a thermos with hot water, also produce steam.

Study 10: Water has no shape Consider an ice cube (remember that ice is solid water). What shape is this piece of ice? Will it change its shape if you put it in a glass, in a bowl, or put it on a table or on your palm? What about liquid water?

Pour water into a jug, plate, glass (any container), onto the table surface. What's happening? Water takes the shape of the object in which it is located, and out of the blue it spreads into a puddle.

Conclusion: Liquid water has no shape.

Another property of water: Water expands when heated, and contracts when cooled.

Now you can answer the question: what makes the lid of a saucepan rattle and bounce when it's on the fire? Why does a water bottle burst when frozen?

, steam engines were invented .

Let's conduct experiments. Place a piece of wood in a glass of water (it does not sink); drop a stone into a glass of water (it sinks); put an iron key into a glass of water (it sinks).

Then the question arises, why doesn’t a ship whose hull is made of iron sink?

The ancient Greek scientist Archimedes, based on the properties of water, discovered two interesting laws that will help to understand how this happens.

So there is a buoyant force . It is directed upward and is equal to the weight of the displacement of water. The underwater part of the ship is filled with air, which displaces a very large volume of water and weighs very little. That is why a ship floats, the hull of which is even made of iron. But if a hole appears in its hull, the hold will fill with water and the ship will sink.

How do fountains work? and how does water rise through the pipeline to the fifth floor?

Archimedes noticed another property: if two puddles are connected by a groove, the water will flow to where its level is lower. If you connect any two vessels, the same level of liquid will be established in them. This property was called the law of communicating vessels.

According to the law of communicating vessels, water pipes are installed in our apartments and fountains work. In the photo is the fountain “Friendship of Peoples”, Moscow

Russia. Moscow. Fountain "Friendship of Peoples" on the territory of VDNKh. Mikhail Grushin/TASS

Even more entertaining experiments here Fun experiments for children “Water OR Archimedes’ Laws.

Three states of water

Water in nature exists in solid , liquid and gaseous states. This is the only substance that we can observe in three states.

When transitioning from a liquid to a solid, other substances are compressed as the distance between the molecules decreases; water behaves quite the opposite.

When it freezes, it loses its density and rises to the surface instead of going to the bottom. The resulting layer of ice prevents the penetration of cold air. As a result, the water under the ice is able to retain heat and not turn into ice. Therefore, even if the air temperature has reached 50 degrees Celsius, under the ice it is still always around zero. And life goes on!

Did you know that if water is cooled to 0 °C, it will freeze and become a solid called ice. If it is heated to +100 °C, it will boil and disappear into the air, turning into a gas called water vapor.

How it happens

The water cycle in nature is a complex process, consisting of several stages. The main driving factor for water masses is sunlight. At high temperatures, water begins to evaporate from reservoirs, transforming from liquid to gaseous form. Simultaneously with this transformation, numerous salts are filtered out.

Fresh vapor accumulates in the atmosphere, which rises higher and higher into the layers of the atmosphere, where it collides with cold air masses. During this process, clouds and clouds form. Then the clouds shed precipitation, which fills the ocean.

In the case of land, it is appropriate to talk about the wastewater generated. It is these sources that fill surface and underground reservoirs, and also go through a thorny path on the way to the ocean. On this path, a process occurs that is considered the reverse of steam desalination. Rivers and groundwater absorb mineral compounds from the soil, which are subsequently carried into the oceans and seas. It is there that the water begins to evaporate again, but the salts remain, which maintains the salinity of the World Ocean.

The main components of the cyclic water cycle are:

• precipitation (this is what falls to the surface of the earth from atmospheric cloud accumulations);
• wastewater (these are the streams that move water over land);
• evaporation;
• infiltration (the process of water flows seeping into the ground, which is accompanied by filtration);
• groundwater (runoff passing underground in the vadose zone);
• sublimation (water turns from solid to gaseous);
• sedimentation (conversion of vaporous water into solid deposits);
• advection (this term refers to the horizontal movement of molecules in any state of aggregation in the layers of the atmosphere);
• condensation (accumulation of steam in layers of the atmosphere, formation of clouds);
• evaporation (heating of the ocean surface by the sun, evaporation of vaporous masses, transition of vaporous masses from the surface of the earth into the atmosphere);
• sedimentation (conversion of vaporous water into solid deposits);
• infiltration (transition of moisture into the soil under the influence of gravity).

The list above did not include the item with the evaporation of moisture from plant surfaces, since in this case it is combined with ordinary evaporation, which refers to the heating of the surfaces of water bodies.

Temporary indicators of water renewal for different objects:

• various living organisms (including protozoa) – about 7 days;
• in the layers of the atmosphere – 10-11 days;
• in river streams – 14 days;
• in soil layers – 30-365 days;
• in areas covered with swamps - 365-3652 days;
• in lakes and other freshwater bodies - about 3652 days;
• in salty bodies of water (seas, oceans) – 1,460,000 days;
• in caves and other underground sources – 3,650,000 days;
• glaciers and other zones of eternal ice - several thousand years.

Lesson summary “How important water is”

Goals: To organize the cognitive activities of students to acquire knowledge about the importance of water for all life on Earth, to develop the ability to reflect received impressions in productive activities. Create conditions for the formation of a consciously correct attitude towards nature in students. Promote the development of cognitive interest; ability to analyze and draw conclusions. Objectives: Organize the activities of students to clarify and expand knowledge about water and types of reservoirs. Organize activities for students to acquire knowledge that clean water is an invaluable gift of nature. Organize activities for students to expand knowledge about the main sources of water pollution and its consequences. Organize the activities of pupils to implement independent constructive creative activities Equipment: Drawings of children made together with their parents on the topic “We cannot live without water!”, globe, laptop, screen, projector, cards for the game “What will happen if the water disappears?”, magnetic board, flat images of the globe, a basket for drawings, blue long ribbons and short and long ribbons.

Progress of the lesson

The TEACHER asks the children a riddle.

In the sea I am always salty, but in the river I am fresh. Only in the hot desert I have no place at all (water).

Water is one of the most amazing substances on the planet and your drawings that you drew with your parents confirm how water benefits people. Conversation with children based on drawings made together with parents on the topic “We cannot live without water.” TEACHER. Water is needed to do many simple, everyday things. She is irreplaceable. Do you think it is possible to live without water? Without water, a person cannot live long. TEACHER. Is there anything else you would like to know about water? Then you and I are going to the city of Knowledge (shows the globe to the children). TEACHER. Do you know what this is? (children's answers). TEACHER. This is a globe - a model of planet Earth. What is indicated in blue on the globe? (children's answers). TEACHER. What other colors do you see? What do these colors represent? (land). What color is there more on the globe? (twists the globe) What do you think this means? (children's answers). There is much more water on our planet than land. To help the children imagine this, the teacher invites each child to take a “model of the globe” and cut out pieces of land with scissors. Children complete the task, then compare land and water by size, which is larger. TEACHER. Where in nature is there water? CHILDREN. In the seas, oceans, rivers, lakes. TEACHER. How are they different and what do they have in common? (children's answers). TEACHER. Is it possible to drink water from the sea and ocean? Sea water contains many different salts that are produced by algae. It is useful to take baths with sea water and gargle with it. It strengthens the body, but is not suitable for drinking. What kind of water can you drink? (children's answers). We need clean, fresh water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Where does fresh water come from? River water is called fresh water. River water is purified in a special place called a water treatment plant, after purification it enters our apartments through water taps. TEACHER. Where is there more water - in the oceans or in rivers and lakes? What conclusion can be drawn from this? (Water must be conserved because there is little fresh water on Earth).

Physical education minute.

We quickly went down to the river, bent down and washed ourselves. One, two, three, four - That's how nicely refreshed you were! And now we swam together, You need to do this with your hands: Together - once, this is breaststroke, One, the other - this is crawl. We swam along the river together, came out to the steep bank and waved our hand to her!

Game: “What happens if the water disappears?”

(On the magnetic board there are cards with images of water, plants, birds, animals, fish, humans. The teacher removes the card with the image of water, and the children must tell what will happen to the rest of the animals, to humans, to plants, to fish).

TEACHER. Water is of great importance for life. All living beings need it - animals, plants and people. It seems that there is a lot of water on earth, but clean water is becoming less and less. Why do you think this is happening? Children's answers. TEACHER . People break the rules of behavior in nature. Water bodies are polluted not only by garbage, but also factories and factories pollute rivers with waste from their production. Aquatic life is dying from this. The sea coasts are strewn with garbage, people dump huge amounts of toxic substances into the seas and oceans, tanker accidents leave sticky oil slicks on the surface of the water, all this is destroying the water. There are countries on the planet where clean water is no longer enough, so on March 22, people all over the planet celebrate World Water Day. His motto: “Water is life.” We must conserve water so that there is enough for everyone. TEACHER. What measures need to be taken to ensure that the water does not leave us and is clean? CHILDREN. Don't throw trash. You must treat water with care and do not leave taps open. Keep rivers, lakes, seas, ponds clean and tidy, and do not litter natural bodies of water. Install water purifiers. TEACHER. There are many different rivers on earth - they are big and small, and they all run somewhere, a big river is formed from many small rivers and streams. And it is very important to preserve the water of small and large rivers from pollution. The teacher invites the children to the table on which there is a picture of sushi. Children, look at our piece of land, something is missing, what do you think? CHILDREN. Water. Let's make a big, full-flowing river out of ribbons and strings. For a hint, you can look at a fragment of the map on the slide. Using ribbons and thin strings, children, under the guidance of a teacher, model the image of streams flowing into rivers, and rivers into seas. Teamwork. Modeling. “How is a river born”? TEACHER. What a big, wide and clean river you have turned out to be. What would you like to tell other people? CHILDREN'S ANSWERS (People, plants, animals, birds need water. Our earth and all life on it will die without water. Water in both rivers and seas must be preserved and protected so that disaster does not happen).

TEACHER.

Water is a miracle of nature, and we cannot live without water. Water is the property of the people! We must value water!

Author: Krayushkina Elena Vasilievna, teacher, MBDOU kindergarten No. 4 “Rainbow”, Rybnoye, Ryazan region, Russia

The article is published in the author's edition

Varieties of the cycle

The cycle has several subspecies, each of which has certain characteristic features:

1. Big cycle. This is what they teach in school. The water first evaporates, then concentrates as steam. Next, the masses of steam rush into the layers of the atmosphere, from where they are driven by the wind to land. Moisture falls on the soil surface in the form of precipitation. After this, the flows accumulated in rivers and soil layers move back into the ocean basin.
2. Small circulation. Clouds of steam rising above the ocean fall as precipitation over the same ocean, and not over land.
3. Inland cycle. All stages of the cycle occur over land. Moisture evaporating from the ground is shed as precipitation on the same soil.
4. Geological cycle. This is a term that refers to the mutual exchange of water masses between different oceans, land and lithosphere. Typically, this process occurs in zones of tectonic cracks located at the junction of lithospheric plates.
5. Global circulation. This is an open cycle, during which there is an influx of moisture into the hydrosphere through tectonic cracks. During the year, about 0.25 km3 accumulates during this process. At the same time, some of the vapor molecules that have accumulated in the atmosphere rush into space, turning into oxygen and hydrogen.

The importance of the water cycle in nature

This is one of the most important cycles on Earth. It is he who connects all the shells of the planet together, allowing them to function harmoniously. Without the movement and distribution of water throughout the planet, the Earth as we know it would not exist.

This cycle is what allows life to remain on Earth for all these long millennia. And we are talking not only about people and animals, but also about plants, bacteria, protozoa, etc. Water, passing through all the indicated stages of the algorithm, also carries with it various organic and mineral compounds that serve as food for creatures, a source of nutrition and fertility for the soil, a source of salts for reservoirs, etc.

It is definitely worth saying that we also owe the climatic division that we have today to the water cycle, because this entire closed cycle allows us to maintain optimal temperature and humidity levels in different areas of the planet, which, in turn, allow us to maintain diversity species.

The importance of the water cycle in nature:

• the unification of all spheres of the planet (in fact, this is the connecting link that makes the planet a planet, unified and capable of supporting life);
• division of hydrosphere objects into salty and fresh (and, accordingly, maintaining life diversity on the surface of the planet);
• transport of large volumes of substances over long distances;
• cleansing the World Ocean basin;
• stabilization and maintenance of optimal climatic conditions in different zones of the planet;
• providing life-giving moisture to all territories of the Earth;
• maintaining balance in different climatic zones (again, this correlates with the diversity of species in the corresponding regions of the Earth);
• supplying moisture, minerals and organic matter to soil masses, which allows maintaining the vital activity of plant species throughout the planet.

All about water for children

The topic of water is very relevant today, due to the fact that the world is already experiencing problems with fresh water for some regions. That is why it is necessary to teach children to treat this resource with care and try to save water, because in the near future it may happen that there will not be enough water for their generation.

It is necessary to start telling children about water in kindergarten. It is at this age (from 2 to 6 years) that the child is open to learning about the world and perceives all information very well. Therefore, it is from this age that it is necessary to start telling the child about water, its importance and necessity for humans, as well as the limitations of this resource.