Review The Water Cycle and Earth’s Water with three differentiated, print-and-go crossword puzzles for Grades 5–6. The Easy, Medium and Hard levels use clear, factual clues, so you can give every student the right amount of challenge, and each puzzle is followed by a complete teacher answer key. Students practice 32 key terms in all, from Evaporation and Condensation to Estuary.

What students practice

• Easy (10 answers, word bank): Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, Collection, Cloud, Ocean, Vapor, Cycle, Rain, River. Sample clues: Evaporation (When liquid water turns into water vapor and rises into the air); Condensation (When water vapor cools and changes into tiny liquid droplets); Precipitation (Rain, snow, sleet, or hail that falls from clouds to Earth); Collection (Water gathering in oceans, lakes, rivers, and underground).
• Medium (10 answers, word bank): Runoff, Groundwater, Aquifer, Reservoir, Watershed, Infiltration, Humidity, Glacier, Freshwater, Saline. Sample clues: Runoff (Water that flows over land into streams, rivers, and lakes); Groundwater (Water stored in spaces in soil and rock beneath Earth’s surface); Aquifer (An underground layer of rock or sediment that holds usable water); Reservoir (A natural or human-made lake that stores water for later use).
• Hard (12 answers, no word bank): Sublimation, Deposition, Percolation, Saturation, Water Table, Recharge, Discharge, Hydrologic, Condensation, Residence, Tributary, Estuary. Sample clues: Sublimation (When ice turns directly into water vapor without becoming liquid); Deposition (When water vapor turns directly into ice, forming frost); Percolation (The slow movement of water downward through soil and rock); Saturation (When soil or air holds as much water as it can).
• Reading each clue carefully, spelling place names and geography terms correctly, and fitting answers into the grid (spaces are omitted in multi-word answers)

What’s included (6 pages)

• Easy crossword (1 page): grid, Across and Down clues, and a word bank, with Name / Date / Class lines
• Easy answer key (1 page): the solved grid with all 10 answers, numbered by clue
• Medium crossword (1 page): grid, Across and Down clues, and a word bank, with Name / Date / Class lines
• Medium answer key (1 page): the solved grid with all 10 answers, numbered by clue
• Hard crossword (1 page): grid, Across and Down clues (no word bank, for extra challenge), with Name / Date / Class lines
• Hard answer key (1 page): the solved grid with all 12 answers, numbered by clue

How to use it in class

1. Pick a level for each student or group: Easy and Medium include a word bank, Hard does not.
2. Print the puzzle pages (the answer key follows each puzzle, so keep those pages for yourself).
3. Use it as a warm-up, independent practice, a geography center, homework, sub plans or a review before a quiz on the water cycle and earth’s water.
4. Check answers quickly with the solved grids, then discuss any terms students found tricky.

At a glance

• Grades: 5–6
• Subject: Social Studies (Geography)
• Pages: 6 (3 puzzles + 3 answer keys)
• Format: Printable PDF, US Letter (8.5 × 11 in); instant digital download after purchase