Water Wise Kids Zone
Learn, play, and protect the watershed — fun activities sponsored by the Deep Creek Watershed Foundation.
What is a Watershed? 🌎
A watershed is all the land where rain and water flow downhill into the same stream, river, or lake. It’s like a big bowl made of land. When it rains or snow melts, the water flows downhill into streams, lake or bay. Some of the rain or snow may also be taken up by plants or the soil or further down underground be stored in aquifers.
Water from Deep Creek Lake flows into the Youghiogheny River, the Mississippi River system, and ultimately the Atlantic Ocean. Everyone lives in a watershed!
Watch
What is the Water Cycle? ☁️💧
The water cycle is how water moves around on Earth. It’s a continuous process where water evaporates from surfaces like oceans and lakes, turns into vapor, rises into the atmosphere, condenses into clouds, and then falls back to Earth as precipitation (rain, snow, etc.). This water then flows over land, into bodies of water, and the cycle starts again.
Watch
Why take care of our watershed? 🐟
- Clean water for everyone: keeps drinking water fresh and safe.
- Homes for animals and plants: protects wildlife habitats.
- Fun places to visit: clean waters mean swimming, fishing, boating.
- Prevent floods: healthy lands absorb rain better.
- Helps farmers: clean water helps grow our food.
By looking after our watershed, we’re helping ourselves, animals, and plants have a better place to live!
- Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth.
- Take a shorter shower.
- Use a broom to clean driveways instead of a hose.
- Tell a grown-up about watering plants in the cool parts of the day.
Activity
Watershed Word Search 🧩
🌊 Water Wise Word Search 🌊
Click the letters to highlight and find all the hidden words!
Activity
Let's Explore 🔍
Which Garrett County watershed are you in?
The hilly land and numerous streams means we have many small watersheds in Garrett County. With the hilly land and many streams in Garrett County, there are many small watersheds. If you are in McHenry, you are in the Deep Creek Lake watershed. Depending on where you are on the top of Wisp Ski Resort, you may be in the Deep Creek Lake watershed or the smaller Hoyes Run watershed, both flow into the Youghiogheny River watershed.
Do you know which one you are in? Click on this map to find which watershed you are in – Garrett County Watersheds
To dive in and learn more about the water cycle and watersheds:
Interactive Water Cycle Diagrams for Kids:
Keep Exploring!
Hey, Water Wise Kids — we’ve learned about watersheds and the water cycle, but there’s more to discover. Check back soon for more games and activities to help our lake and watershed stay healthy!