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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 21 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. How did the bowl in the sun compare with the bowl in the shade?
  2. 2. Why did the drop from the cup leave no white mark on the tile?
  3. 3. What formed under the plastic wrap at midday?
  4. 4. How is the bowl like the sea and the sky?
2.Which two of Earth's systems does evaporation from the sea link?
  • A.The air and the rocks only
  • B.The water and the air
  • C.The land and living things
3.Sea water is left in a shallow pan in the sun for a week. What is left?
  • A.Salt crystals, after the water has evaporated
  • B.Fresh water
  • C.Nothing at all
4.Where does most of the water vapor in the air come from?
  • A.Water evaporating from the oceans
  • B.Breathing animals
  • C.Ponds in parks
5.Rain falls far inland that began as sea water. What carried it there?
  • A.Underground rivers
  • B.Moving air, as wind carrying clouds
  • C.Birds
6.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
7.What gives sea water the energy to evaporate?
  • A.Heat from the sun
  • B.The salt in it
  • C.The fish in it

LessonPrint · 5-ESS2-1 · Set 21 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Where the Sun Sends the Water

Set 21. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The bowl in the sun made far more drops; the bowl in the shade had only a few and its cup stayed empty. 2. Only the water left the bowl; the salt stayed behind as a crust. 3. Water drops. 4. The salty water is like the sea, and the plastic wrap is like the cool air where water vapor turns back into drops.
  2. 2.The water and the air
  3. 3.Salt crystals, after the water has evaporated
  4. 4.Water evaporating from the oceans
  5. 5.Moving air, as wind carrying clouds
  6. 6.Water evaporates from its surface all the time
  7. 7.Heat from the sun

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