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

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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. What would happen on a hotter, sunnier day?
  2. 2. Why did the drop from the cup leave no white mark on the tile?
  3. 3. How is the bowl like the sea and the sky?
  4. 4. What formed under the plastic wrap at midday?
2.In a model, a bowl of salty water stands for the sea. What could stand for the cool air where clouds form?
  • A.The table
  • B.Plastic wrap stretched over the top
  • C.The salt
3.Why do puddles dry faster on a sunny day than a cloudy one?
  • A.The sun's heat makes the water evaporate faster
  • B.Clouds add water to puddles
  • C.Puddles drain faster in sunlight
4.What gives sea water the energy to evaporate?
  • A.Heat from the sun
  • B.The salt in it
  • C.The fish in it
5.Rain falls far inland that began as sea water. What carried it there?
  • A.Moving air, as wind carrying clouds
  • B.Birds
  • C.Underground rivers
6.Rivers pour into the sea all the time. Why does the sea not overflow?
  • A.The sea floor drinks it
  • B.Water evaporates from its surface all the time
  • C.Rivers stop at night
7.Sea water is left in a shallow pan in the sun for a week. What is left?
  • A.Nothing at all
  • B.Fresh water
  • C.Salt crystals, after the water has evaporated

LessonPrint · 5-ESS2-1 · Set 20 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Where the Sun Sends the Water

Set 20. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. More drops would form under the plastic wrap and more water would collect in the cup. 2. Only the water left the bowl; the salt stayed behind as a crust. 3. The salty water is like the sea, and the plastic wrap is like the cool air where water vapor turns back into drops. 4. Water drops.
  2. 2.Plastic wrap stretched over the top
  3. 3.The sun's heat makes the water evaporate faster
  4. 4.Heat from the sun
  5. 5.Moving air, as wind carrying clouds
  6. 6.Water evaporates from its surface all the time
  7. 7.Salt crystals, after the water has evaporated

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