The cycling of water in and out of the atmosphere plays and an important role in determining climatic patterns. Water evaporates from the surface of the earth, rises and cools, condenses into rain or snow, and falls again to the surface. The water falling on land collects in rivers and lakes, soil, and porous layers of rock, and much of it flows back into the ocean. BM 4B Air is a substance that surrounds us, takes up space and whose movement we can feel as wind. BM 4C Rock is composed of different combinations of minerals.
Smaller rocks come from the breakage and weathering of bedrock and larger rocks.
Soil is made partly from weathered rock, partly from plant remains and also contains many living organisms. BM 5A A great variety of kinds of living things can be sorted into groups in many ways using various features to decide which things belong to which group. Features used for grouping depend on the purpose of the grouping. BM5F Fossils can be compared to one another and to living organisms according to their similarities and differences. Some organisms that lived long ago are similar to existing organisms, but some are quite different.