In this Geography video, teachers are guided through effective ways to introduce the water cycle, a key concept that underpins children’s understanding of rivers and their formation. The lesson provides a clear, visual approach to explaining how water moves through different stores and processes within the environment, laying the groundwork for later lessons in the Rivers unit.

The video revisits how water is stored on Earth in oceans, glaciers, rivers and groundwater. It outlines the main processes that move it between these stores: evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, percolation and runoff. Effective ways of explaining these processes is modelled, showing how they operate in continuous cycles, with water being reused and recycled rather than created or destroyed.

This video is part of Kapow Primary’s Geography rivers collection and supports confident delivery of early concepts.

See more of our Key stage 2 Geography scheme of work.

• Geography, Year 4, What are rivers and how are they used?, Lesson 1: What is the water cycle?
• Geography, Year 3/4 (B), What are rivers and how are they used?, Lesson 1: What is the water cycle?
• Geography, Year 4, What are rivers and how are they used?
• Geography, Year 3/4 (B), What are rivers and how are they used?