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Science · Ages 7–9 · 55 minutes

Animal life cycles

Children sequence the life cycles of a butterfly, a frog and a bird, and explain how a young animal changes as it grows into an adult.

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Success criteria

  • I can put the stages of a life cycle in order
  • I can name each stage
  • I can compare two life cycles and say what is the same and different

Key vocabulary

  • life cycle
  • egg
  • larva
  • caterpillar
  • pupa
  • chrysalis
  • tadpole
  • froglet
  • fledgling
  • adult

You will need

  • life-cycle picture cards (four per animal)
  • paper plates
  • split pins
  • scissors
  • glue
  • coloured pencils

Practice sheets

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The lesson at a glance

55 minutes in all. Timings are a guide: follow your class.

  1. Step 1: Starter

    Show a photo or drawing of a caterpillar and a butterfly side by side.
    8 minutes

  2. Step 2: Teach

    Draw a circle on the board and explain the idea of a cycle: "It is called a life cycle because it goes round.
    10–15 min

  3. Step 3: Guided practice

    Give each group a shuffled set of picture cards for one animal.

  4. Step 4: Independent practice

    Children make a life-cycle wheel: split a paper plate into four sections, draw one stage in each, then fix a second plate with a window cut out on top with a split pin so they can turn it.

  5. Step 5: Plenary

    Hold up stage cards in a random order and ask children to stand up if it comes before the stage you are showing next.

  6. Step 6: Assessment for learning

    Can children order four stages without help, starting from the egg?

  7. Step 7: Differentiation

    Support: use only two animals (butterfly and bird), give labels to stick on rather than write, and pair children for reading.

  8. Step 8: Common misconceptions

    "The caterpillar and the butterfly are different animals." They are the same animal at different stages.

  9. Step 9: Home link

    Look at a pet, a garden or a book together and ask, "What did this animal look like when it was young?"

Children know that kittens grow into cats. The surprise is that some animals change completely on the way, so a caterpillar looks nothing like a butterfly. This lesson sorts life cycles into "grows bigger" and "changes shape", and every child leaves with a life-cycle wheel they made.

1.Starter

8 minutes

Show a photo or drawing of a caterpillar and a butterfly side by side. Ask: "Are these the same animal or different animals?" Let pairs argue for one minute, then reveal that they are the same animal at different ages.

Follow with a quick "baby name" quiz on whiteboards: a baby frog (tadpole), a baby dog (puppy), a baby butterfly (caterpillar), a young bird just out of the nest (fledgling). Eight minutes.

2.Teach

10–15 min

Draw a circle on the board and explain the idea of a cycle: "It is called a life cycle because it goes round. The adult lays eggs or has babies, the babies grow up, and the new adults have babies of their own."

Model the butterfly cycle with arrows: egg → caterpillar (larva) → chrysalis (pupa) → butterfly. Use script lines like:

  • "The caterpillar has one big job: eat and grow."
  • "Inside the chrysalis, its body is completely rebuilt. When it comes out, it is a butterfly."

Then model the frog: frogspawn (eggs) → tadpole → froglet with legs → adult frog. Ask: "What changes? What does the tadpole lose?" (Its tail; it also starts breathing air.) Finally a bird: egg → chick → fledgling → adult. Ask: "Does the chick change shape like the caterpillar, or just grow?"

  • butterfly
  • frog
  • bird
  • egg
Three life cycles that all begin with an egg.

The rest of the plan

Guided and independent practice, the plenary, assessment for learning, differentiation, common misconceptions and the home link are free with a Crayonbird account.

  1. Guided practice
  2. Independent practice
  3. Plenary
  4. Assessment for learning
  5. Differentiation
  6. Common misconceptions
  7. Home link
See the whole plan, free

Learning Wiki

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A life cycle is the series of changes a living thing goes through from the start of its life to becoming an adult that can produce young, so the cycle begins again.

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A magnet is an object that pulls on certain metals, such as iron, and pushes or pulls on other magnets. Every magnet has a north pole and a south pole.

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