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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 4 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. How is the bowl like the sea and the sky?
  3. 3. Why was a second bowl left in the shade?
  4. 4. Why did the drop from the cup leave no white mark on the tile?
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.Which two of Earth's systems does evaporation from the sea link?
  • A.The water and the air
  • B.The air and the rocks only
  • C.The land and living things
4.Rain falls far inland that began as sea water. What carried it there?
  • A.Underground rivers
  • B.Birds
  • C.Moving air, as wind carrying clouds
5.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.Nothing at all
  • C.Fresh water
6.Sea water is salty, but rain from clouds over the sea is fresh. Why?
  • A.Clouds clean the salt out
  • B.The rain is from rivers
  • C.Only the water evaporates; the salt stays in the sea
7.What would happen to rain over the land if the sun stopped warming the sea?
  • A.Much less water would evaporate, so there would be much less rain
  • B.Nothing would change
  • C.There would be more rain

LessonPrint · 5-ESS2-1 · Set 4 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Where the Sun Sends the Water

Set 4. 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. The salty water is like the sea, and the plastic wrap is like the cool air where water vapor turns back into drops. 3. So the effect of the sun could be seen by comparing the two bowls. 4. Only the water left the bowl; the salt stayed behind as a crust.
  2. 2.It condenses into tiny droplets that form clouds
  3. 3.The water and the air
  4. 4.Moving air, as wind carrying clouds
  5. 5.Salt crystals, after the water has evaporated
  6. 6.Only the water evaporates; the salt stays in the sea
  7. 7.Much less water would evaporate, so there would be much less rain

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