🦋 Animal life cycles
A five-minute lesson. Tap play and I’ll read every step, or read along and tap 🔊 on any step.
A life cycle
Every animal has a life cycle. It starts life, grows up, has young of its own, and one day its life ends. Then the young ones carry on.
A butterfly starts as an egg
A butterfly's life starts as a tiny egg, laid on a leaf.
Then a caterpillar
A caterpillar hatches from the egg. It eats and eats, and grows much bigger.
Then a chrysalis
The caterpillar makes a hard case called a chrysalis. Inside, its body changes completely.
Then a butterfly
A butterfly comes out, dries its wings and flies. It lays eggs of its own, and the cycle starts again.
A frog changes too
A frog starts as an egg in water. A tadpole hatches, with a tail and gills. It grows legs, loses its tail, and hops onto land.
Quiz: three questions
Draw it, and try it at home
Draw a butterfly's life cycle in a circle, with arrows: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly. Then try this at home: In a garden or park, look under leaves for tiny eggs or caterpillars. Look, but don't touch. Draw what you find, and look again next week.
For teachers: Grades 1–3
- NGSS 3-LS1-1: Organisms have unique and diverse life cycles, but all have birth, growth, reproduction and death in common.