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Environmental Cycles Crossword

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Environmental Cycles Crossword

Explore how water, carbon and living things move through nature. Solve the clues, then use the vocabulary to build your own mini-crossword in the box. For crossword answers, write letters without spaces; the number in brackets tells you how many letters to use.

Part A — Solve the cycle clues

Write one word or phrase for each clue. Use the letter count to check your answer.

1.Water vapour cools and changes into tiny liquid droplets that form clouds. What is this process? (12 letters)

2.What process changes liquid water into water vapour, often using energy from the Sun? (11 letters)

3.Rain, snow or hail falling from clouds is called what? (13 letters)

4.Plants take in this gas from the air to make sugars using light energy. (6, 7 letters)

5.What is the name of the process in which green plants use light energy to make sugars? (14 letters)

6.A frog’s young, water-living stage has a long tail and breathes through gills. What is it called? (7 letters)

Part B — Make connections

Use what you know about cycles to work out how one change can affect another.

7.Which gas is produced by cellular respiration and released when animals breathe out?

Oxygen
Carbon dioxide
Water droplets
Nitrogen

8.True or false: Water can move from a stream into the air, form clouds and later fall back to land as rain.

TrueFalse

9.Match each process to what happens.

Evaporation
Condensation
Photosynthesis

Water vapour forms liquid droplets
Plants use light to make sugars and take in carbon dioxide
Liquid water becomes water vapour

10.Imagine a dry summer in Aotearoa. Explain one way less rain could affect a plant and one way that change could affect an animal. Include at least two cycle words from Part A.

Part C — Build a mini-crossword

Choose four answers from Part A. In the box, write each word across or down so at least two words cross at a shared letter. Number your words and write a matching clue beside the grid. Check that each crossing letter is correct.

Draw your own letter squares and fill them in. Leave a square for each letter.

11.Write clues for two of the words you used in your mini-crossword. Make each clue clear enough that another student could solve it.