Water moves in a cycle that never ends. Above Earth, water is in the form of clouds. Clouds are made of tiny water drops or ice crystals. At some point, they fall to Earth as rain or snow. The water soaks into the ground or returns to rivers and oceans. Heat from the sun evaporates water from the surface of Earth, and water returns to the sky as clouds.

Sage had an idea for bringing rain to the dry fields. She climbed the highest hill and called to Wind. “Wind, you are weak!”

That angered Wind. “You dare to call me weak!”

Sage shrugged and said, “You are not strong enough to blow a cloud this way.” Wind began to howl. It blew until the sky filled with clouds and rain fell.

Chang discovers all kinds of interesting things at the beach. Today no one else is there. Even the birds are gone. Chang sees something purple rolling in the waves on the shore. He goes closer. It is a bottle, and it has something in it!

Chang reaches down to pick it up. Then he hears a voice. “Help me! I’m trapped in this bottle.”

Chang knows a lot of folk tales. He knows that a voice in a bottle could be big trouble. So he turns around and walks away.

Earth has very large bodies of water on its surface. The largest is the Pacific Ocean. It is about 15 times bigger than the United States.

The largest body of fresh water is Lake Superior. The lake is almost 2,800 miles around. You could fit Rhode Island in the middle of it.

The Missouri River is one of the longest rivers in the world. It stretches 2,341 miles in length. People use these bodies of water for food, transportation, and recreation.