Life cycles

Ages 6 to 8 Read together, then try alone · about 20 minutes

Read together

Living things are born, grow, make new life and die. This is a life cycle.

A butterfly begins as an egg. It becomes a caterpillar, then a chrysalis, then a butterfly.

A frog begins as an egg, becomes a tadpole, then a froglet, then a frog.

Do it

1. Draw the four stages of a butterfly in a circle, with arrows. Label each one.
2. Do the same for a frog or a plant (seed, seedling, plant, flower and seed).
3. Find a life cycle near you: a bird laying eggs, a tree dropping seeds. Watch from a distance.
4. Compare: which stages look alike? Which look completely different?

Talk about it

• What happens after the butterfly lays eggs?
• Why is it called a cycle?

For the grown-up

Butterflies and frogs change body shape in a way called metamorphosis. Other animals, such as birds and people, grow bigger without such a change. Life cycles can lead to talking about birth and death in a gentle way.

Mark as done

Next lesson →

Where this comes from

• NGSS Lead States, Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States (National Academies Press, 2013), performance expectation 3-LS1-1 (develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles)
• Natural History Museum, London, learning resources on life cycles and metamorphosis

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.