Meet Mr. Bobby Drippy Droplet Jr.

He is still a young droplet.

We call him Mr. Bobby for short.

He lives right here in this very lake. He is just like every other ordinary droplet, so you can't see him, but he is somewhere in there.

Let's play a game of hide and seek!

Okay! I'm counting.

1,2,3...

Come out, come out wherever you are!

Mr. Bobby lived his happy life playing with all of his friends, until the day the sun shined brightly.

Suddenly, Mr. Bobby was starting to change. He always knew that this day would come. The water cycle is starting. The water cycle is the constant movement of water on EarthHe was hotter now and he realized that he was floating in the air. He is now a gas. Mr. Bobby had actually changed his state of matter. This is evaporation- changing from liquid (water) to gas- or water vapor. He is now evaporating to the clouds. Mr. Bobby was a little scared.

The sun is an important element in the water cycle. The water cycle depends on the sun, because without it's heat, water can't evaporate and turn to clouds and then precipitate. Without the sun's energy, the tree states of matter can't change into one another and the water cycle can't go on. The sun is an essential part of the water cycle.

It took a while for Mr. Bobby to arrive to the clouds,

where he met up with all of his friends from the lake. Mr. Bobby started to feel different again. That's when he noticed that he had changed back in a water droplet again and he had formed a cloud with his friends. This is called condensation, changing from a gas to a liquid.

After a while, the clouds got big and gray. Before he knew it, Mr Bobby was falling to the ground as a water droplet, with all of his friends. This is called precipitation- when water falls back to Earth in the form of rain, sleet, snow or hail. Gravity is the force that pulls objects towards the center of Earth. In this case, gravity is pulling Mr. Bobby to the ground. Without gravity the raindrops wouldn't fall to the ground, so gravity is an important part of the water cycle.