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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 24 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. Where did the drops under the plastic wrap come from?
  2. 2. How is the bowl like the sea and the sky?
  3. 3. How did the bowl in the sun compare with the bowl in the shade?
  4. 4. Why was a second bowl left in the shade?
2.Water vapor rises and cools. What happens to it?
  • A.It turns into salt
  • B.It condenses into tiny droplets that form clouds
  • C.It disappears
3.Why do salt makers spread sea water in wide shallow ponds?
  • A.So the water stays cold
  • B.The sun and wind can evaporate the water faster
  • C.So fish can swim in them
4.Where does most of the water vapor in the air come from?
  • A.Breathing animals
  • B.Ponds in parks
  • C.Water evaporating from the oceans
5.What would happen to rain over the land if the sun stopped warming the sea?
  • A.There would be more rain
  • B.Much less water would evaporate, so there would be much less rain
  • C.Nothing would change
6.Rivers pour into the sea all the time. Why does the sea not overflow?
  • A.The sea floor drinks it
  • B.Rivers stop at night
  • C.Water evaporates from its surface all the time
7.What gives sea water the energy to evaporate?
  • A.The salt in it
  • B.Heat from the sun
  • C.The fish in it

LessonPrint · 5-ESS2-1 · Set 24 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Where the Sun Sends the Water

Set 24. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Water from the salty water went up into the air and turned back into drops on the plastic wrap. 2. The salty water is like the sea, and the plastic wrap is like the cool air where water vapor turns back into drops. 3. The bowl in the sun made far more drops; the bowl in the shade had only a few and its cup stayed empty. 4. So the effect of the sun could be seen by comparing the two bowls.
  2. 2.It condenses into tiny droplets that form clouds
  3. 3.The sun and wind can evaporate the water faster
  4. 4.Water evaporating from the oceans
  5. 5.Much less water would evaporate, so there would be much less rain
  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.