Skip to content
LessonPrint

Where the Sun Sends the Water is a free printable Grade 5 science worksheet on using a covered-bowl model of how the sun moves water from sea to air, aligned to NGSS performance expectation 5-ESS2-1. It prints 7 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 19 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

Next set

One paper per student

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Where the Sun Sends the Water

5-ESS2-1

NameDate

Read the record, then answer the questions.

1.Read the record, then answer the questions.

Salty Water Under Plastic Wrap

Notes from two bowls of salty water, each covered with plastic wrap with a small cup in the middle, left out for one sunny day. BOWL IN THE SUN Morning: plastic wrap dry, cup empty Midday: water drops forming under the plastic wrap Afternoon: drops running down the plastic wrap and dripping into the cup Evening: 15 ml of water in the cup, and a white salt crust around the bowl's edge A drop from the cup, dried on a dark tile, left no white mark. BOWL IN THE SHADE Evening: only a few drops under the plastic wrap, cup still empty

  1. 1. How much water was in the cup by the evening?
  2. 2. How did the bowl in the sun compare with the bowl in the shade?
  3. 3. Why was a second bowl left in the shade?
  4. 4. What formed under the plastic wrap at midday?
2.Which two of Earth's systems does evaporation from the sea link?
  • A.The land and living things
  • B.The water and the air
  • C.The air and the rocks only
3.Water vapor rises and cools. What happens to it?
  • A.It disappears
  • B.It turns into salt
  • C.It condenses into tiny droplets that form clouds
4.Why do salt makers spread sea water in wide shallow ponds?
  • A.The sun and wind can evaporate the water faster
  • B.So fish can swim in them
  • C.So the water stays cold
5.What would happen to rain over the land if the sun stopped warming the sea?
  • A.There would be more rain
  • B.Nothing would change
  • C.Much less water would evaporate, so there would be much less rain
6.In a model, a bowl of salty water stands for the sea. What could stand for the cool air where clouds form?
  • A.The salt
  • B.Plastic wrap stretched over the top
  • C.The table
7.Rivers pour into the sea all the time. Why does the sea not overflow?
  • A.Rivers stop at night
  • B.The sea floor drinks it
  • C.Water evaporates from its surface all the time

LessonPrint · 5-ESS2-1 · Set 19 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Where the Sun Sends the Water

Set 19. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. 15 ml of water. 2. The bowl in the sun made far more drops; the bowl in the shade had only a few and its cup stayed empty. 3. So the effect of the sun could be seen by comparing the two bowls. 4. Water drops.
  2. 2.The water and the air
  3. 3.It condenses into tiny droplets that form clouds
  4. 4.The sun and wind can evaporate the water faster
  5. 5.Much less water would evaporate, so there would be much less rain
  6. 6.Plastic wrap stretched over the top
  7. 7.Water evaporates from its surface all the time

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to 5-ESS2-1 of the Next Generation Science Standards.