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Worksheet Grade 6 English Language Arts

Elderfield's Water Cycle: A Grade 6 Explanatory Writing Worksheet

A grade 6 ELA worksheet that builds explanatory-writing skills, ordering the water-cycle stages and drafting a clear paragraph about a valley's water.

Objectives

  1. Students will order the stages of the water cycle and connect them with transition words.
  2. Students will draft an organized explanatory paragraph with a topic sentence and a conclusion.

Vocabulary

Evaporation
Evaporation happens when liquid water, often warmed by the sun, turns into an invisible gas called water vapor that rises into the air. It is how water leaves oceans, lakes, and puddles.
Condensation
Condensation is when water vapor in the air cools down and turns back into tiny liquid water droplets. It is how clouds form and why a cold glass gets wet on the outside on a warm day.
Precipitation
Precipitation is any water that falls from clouds to the ground, including rain, snow, sleet, and hail. It is the main way water returns from the sky to the surface of the Earth.

Also: transition, topic sentence

Teacher overview

This worksheet treats the water cycle as a chance to practice explanatory writing rather than science recall. Students order the stages, choose transition words, fix an opinion sentence that does not belong, and draft a short organized paragraph about water moving through the fictional Elderfield valley. It works well right before a longer informative writing assignment, since it isolates the skills students will need.

Elderfield's Water Cycle: A Grade 6 Explanatory Writing Worksheet — Grade 6 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Use these facts to complete the items. Elderfield is a fictional valley used for this worksheet.

Facts you may use:

  • The sun heats water in the Elderfield River. The water rises into the air as vapor.
  • Up in the cool air, the vapor turns into tiny drops. The drops form clouds.
  • When the drops grow heavy, they fall as rain or snow.
  • Some of that water runs back into the river. Some soaks into the ground.
  • A bit of water stays in the air about 9 days before it falls again.
  1. Number these four stages in order, 1 to 4: precipitation, evaporation, collection, condensation.
  2. Write a topic sentence for a paragraph about the water cycle in the Elderfield valley.
  3. Pick the better word to join these steps. Tell why. "The vapor rises. ___ it cools and forms clouds." (Choose "Next," or "However,")
  4. Write a one-sentence meaning of evaporation for a younger student.
  5. One sentence does not belong in an explanatory paragraph. Find it and tell why. (a) "Water evaporates from the river." (b) "Rainy days are gloomy and boring." (c) "The clouds drop rain on the valley."
  6. Rewrite this weak sentence with a stronger verb and a detail: "Water goes up into the sky."
  7. Fill in two order words: "First, the sun heats the river. ___ the vapor cools into clouds. ___ the drops fall as rain."
  8. Write four or five sentences that explain the water cycle in the Elderfield valley. Put the stages in order. Use at least two transition words.
  9. Write a closing sentence for your paragraph from item 8.
  10. Tell why a paragraph that explains the water cycle should leave out how the writer feels about rainy days.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 1 evaporation, 2 condensation, 3 precipitation, 4 collection. This follows the order in the fact list, from water rising to clouds forming to rain falling to water returning to the river and ground.
  2. Answer: Answers will vary. Look for one clear sentence that names the topic, such as "The water cycle moves water through the Elderfield valley in a repeating set of steps."
  3. Answer: "Next." It signals the following step in a sequence, while "However" signals a contrast, which does not fit two steps that happen in order.
  4. Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any clear definition, such as "Evaporation is when the sun heats water and it turns into vapor that rises into the air."
  5. Answer: Sentence (b) does not belong. It states an opinion about the weather, and an explanatory paragraph should give facts about how the cycle works, not the writer's feelings.
  6. Answer: Answers will vary. Look for a precise verb and detail, such as "The sun heats the river until the water evaporates and rises as vapor."
  7. Answer: Answers will vary. Reasonable order words include "Next" (or "Then") for the first blank and "Finally" (or "After that") for the second blank.
  8. Answer: Answers will vary. A strong paragraph names the stages in order (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection), uses at least two transitions, and stays focused on explaining the cycle.
  9. Answer: Answers will vary. Look for a sentence that closes the paragraph, such as "In this way, the same water keeps moving through the valley again and again."
  10. Answer: Answers will vary but should note that an explanatory paragraph informs the reader with facts, and personal feelings about rainy weather do not help explain how the cycle works.

Differentiation

Support

Give students a cut-apart set of the four stage cards to arrange for item 1 before they write, and provide a topic-sentence frame for item 2: "The water cycle in the Elderfield valley works in steps that ___." Offer a short transition word bank.

Extension

Ask students to expand their paragraph from item 8 into two paragraphs, adding a second paragraph that explains what happens to the water that soaks into the ground versus the water that runs back into the river.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "evaporation," "condensation," "precipitation," "transition," and "topic sentence" with a labeled cycle diagram. Allow the paragraph in item 8 to be written with sentence frames for each stage, and let students underline the transition words they used.