What are the forms of water on Earth? This may seem like an easy question to most of us, but how can we get our kids to understand that water comes in different forms?
The Earth is over 71% water! We see water in lakes, rivers, and even in puddles on the ground. Water collects in our bathtub when we run a bath and falls into our cup when we make a glass of water. We also see water in the form of precipitation as it falls from the ground. For this reason, we are most familiar with water as a liquid. It is the form of water we most often see. What are the other forms of water on Earth? Water can be in the form of a solid, liquid, or gas.
This blog post is all about water activities to help understand the forms of water on Earth
Forms of Water
Solid
Solid water is water that is frozen. When water is in solid form it can hold a shape. Even when moved from its container, ice still holds its shape. The particles in ice are very close to each other. They are tightly packed and do not have a lot of space between them.
Liquid
Liquid water is water that flows. Liquid water is the most common form of water. We see it every day all around us! Unlike solids, liquids do not have a defined shape. The particles in liquid water are more spaced apart. Liquids can take the shape of their container and flow if they are poured.
Gas
Water as a gas is called water vapor. Gas has no fixed shape. The particles in gases are not tightly compacted like they are in a solid. Instead, particles in gases are spaced very far apart. Water vapor has not definite shape or volume.
Video Resources
Changing States of Matter: This video talks about the three different forms of water. It also demonstrates how these forms of water change from one to the other and back again. This is a great introduction to the water cycle as this video also touches on evaporation and condensation.
States of Matter for Kids: This video is great to show the states of matter with an experiment – making popsicles. While watching the experiment, the students learn how each form of matter is involved in the process.
Forms of Water Activities
Here are some activities to help your kids have a better understanding of the forms of water on Earth. Be sure to head to my Teachers Pay Teachers page to grab my forms of water resources.
Make Popsicles
Making popsicles is not only fun, but it’s also a great way to show the forms of water. This is a great activity to do in the spring and summer when the weather starts to get warm. If you are unable to do this in the classroom because you do not have access to a hotplate or burner, you can show pictures of the process, have the students form hypotheses, and bring in popsicles for the final part of the activity.
- Here is the recipe I follow.
- Here are the popsicle molds we love.
Popsicle Molds with Reusable Sticks
Silicone Squeeze Pop Molds
Color Changing Cars
Have you ever tried these color-changing cars from Hot Wheels? They’re incredible to help facilitate learning the difference between the forms of water on Earth. If you’re working with students in the classroom, I would suggest doing an initial rinse of the cars when you first purchase them before you give them to your students. You have to get off the initial layer on the cars and it can be a bit messy for the classroom.
Next, set up two buckets for each group – a bowl of warm water and a bowl of cold water
For the gas form of water, you can have a tea kettle at the front of the classroom. You will need it to warm up the warm water as it will cool down over time while transferring the car from the ice water and the color will stop changing.
- Ask the students to place the cars in the warm water. What happens?
- Ask the students to place the cars in the ice water. What happens?
- Which of the bowls best shows water in a solid state?
- Which of the bowls best shows water in a liquid state?
- Did we see water as a gas? *the tea kettle when we had to warm back up the warm water
- At the end of the activity, ask how did the solid change over time?
- What could we do to turn the liquid water back into a solid?
- Is there any way we could turn the liquid water into a gas?
Forms of Water Activity Sheets
With this resource, students learn that water changes form!
This set of activity sheets includes:
- 3 black and white posters of water as a solid, water as a liquid, water as a gas
- 3 posters (with color) of water as a solid, water as a liquid, water as a gas
- 1 coloring worksheet of the three forms of water
- 3 worksheets to identify the different forms of water
- 3 answering sheets for the 3 water form worksheets
Forms of Water Run (or Walk) Game
Using the forms of water activity sheets, grab the solid, liquid, and gas posters! I would laminate them to make them easy to use over and over again. If you’re looking for a zero waste way to laminate, check out my Instagram Reel here. The most successful I’ve seen with this game is in a school gym and outside.
Here’s how the game works:
- Hang the posters in different places around the classroom
- Assign each student a form of water: solid, liquid, gas
- On a presentation slide, place a picture of an example of a form of water. This can also be done verbally.
- Have the student who is assigned that form of water run (or walk) to where it is located around the classroom.
- You can even add questions about the forms of water on Earth as well.
- Extension: have all the students who are a solid show what the solid molecules look like, and so on and so forth for each form of water. The solid molecules would stand close together, the liquid molecules would be more spread apart, and the gas molecules would be really spread apart.
Don’t forget to grab your copy of these forms of water activity sheets!
I hope you enjoyed this blog post all about the forms of water on Earth!
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