Fifth graders at Crestview Elementary learned about the water cycle through a hands-on activity in Mrs. Jessica Ball’s classroom. Seven stations - glacier, groundwater, stream, ocean, cloud, plant and animal - were set up around the room to represent different phases of the water cycle. At each station, students rolled dice to receive a number. That number determined their next phase in the water cycle. They wrote down their beginning stage and destination as they walked around to the stations.

At the end of the activity, students realized that water molecules are always simultaneously moving because not a single student went through the same phases in the same order. One student was stuck as a molecule in the ocean, while another student bounced from a cloud, to a stream, to a cloud. One student told Mrs. Ball, “I was dizzy being bounced around.” Some students even went through the process of being licked up by a dog and then urinated!

“When we get up and moving it helps the kids process information. They will remember getting stuck in the water cycle as a molecule and bouncing between a cloud and a stream,” said Jessica Ball, 5th Grade Science Teacher at Crestview Elementary.