Below are ideas for extending this topic beyond the activity & exploration which you just completed.

• Lesson Assessment and Answer Key
• Readings: Four readings with comprehension questions.
• Activities: Explore evaporation with Disappearing Puddles (outdoors on a sunny day) or Two Cups (indoors).
  
• Videos: Science educator Steve Spangler makes clouds by spraying warm water into cold air.
• Discuss: Get your students thinking about water vapor with these questions.

These Common-Core-aligned readings are free with registration on ReadWorks.

• What’s the Big Idea about Water explains why water matters to our planet. (Grade 3 — reading)
• Whys of Weather: Clouds explains what clouds are. (Grade 3 — reading and comprehension questions)
• Water takes 3 forms describes solids, liquids, and gases. (Grade 2 — reading and comprehension questions)
• Weather: The Water Cycle describes our planet’s water cycle. (Grade 4 — reading and comprehension questions)

On a warm sunny morning, pour some water on the pavement to make a puddle. Mark the circumference of the puddle with a chalk line. Check on the puddle — once an hour, if you can manage it. Each time you check it, draw a new outline around the puddle.

Discuss with your class:

• Where did the water go?
• If the weather was cold, do you think the puddle would disappear faster or slower? Why do you think that?
  

Fill two identical clear plastic cups with water. Mark the water level in both glasses. Cover one with a lid (or plastic wrap), then put them both in a warm spot — on a sunny window ledge or near the heater.

Ask your students what they think will happen. Check on the glasses every day for the next week.

If you want to explore further, try this follow-up experiment. Start with the same two glasses, but leave both uncovered. Put one cup in a warm spot and the other in a cooler spot. Ask your students what they think will happen.

Now that your students know about water vapor, discuss what's going on in these situations.

• When you take a hot shower, why does the mirror in the bathroom fog up?
• On a cold day, why do you sometimes see your breath?
• Early in the morning, why is the grass sometimes covered with drops of dew?