Learning can be paradoxical. Students are expected to link heat gain/loss to various processes in the water cycle, but they are not taught how the arrangement of particles and assorted vibrations affect the changes in the state of water. 💦

Thank goodness we have books like “Drop: An Adventure through the Water Cycle”. It firsts employs a zoom-out perspective, letting my son know that water has been around for 4.5 billion years and was deemed necessary for survival by dinosaurs in the past. How water exists in its natural form as glaciers and icebergs. How it gains energy from the Sun to become warm and wiggly - and then loses heat to become bouncy and pouncy as falling rain. Simple, rhyming language to induct preschoolers into the world of the water cycle. I read this book to my son, hoping that he would acquire the concepts of heat gain/loss through osmosis. After all, through spaced repetition, he should be able to remember that water in lakes and seas gains heat to become warm and wiggly water vapour.

To aid parents in their understanding of scientific concepts, explanatory notes are provided on the sleeves of the covers. Just the right amount of succinct, bite-sized information to remind them of the various processes: evaporation, condensation, freezing (snowflakes), precipitation and collection.

I also liked that the absorption of water by plants is covered. And how water is transported to other parts of the plant via the stem and used for transpiration by the leaves. Yet another example of big ideas introduced in simple language.

I can read this book to my son again and again!