Animal Life Cycles Teaching Resources
Are you teaching the frog life cycle? The butterfly life cycle? Teaching elementary students all the steps of the plant life cycle? Cut your science lesson planning in half with printable life cycle worksheets, activities, and Google Slide templates created by teachers for teachers.
This curated collection of life cycle teaching resources covers a range of animal life, plus printable and digital versions of our most popular activities. Each resource has undergone rigorous review by a member of the Teach Starter teacher team to ensure it's ready to be used in your classroom. You'll find Common Core-aligned resources, editable options, and resources already differentiated for you to make science lesson planning easier!
Looking to get started on teaching about life cycles, or just need more ways to make this science topic more engaging in your classroom? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including an explanation of what a life cycle is, some key terms and a look at different animals and how they develop!
What Is a Life Cycle? A Kid-Friendly Definition
Looking for a simple way to explain what a life cycle is to your students? Let's start off with a kid-friendly definition from our teacher team.
The animal life cycle is the different stages of growth and development that animals go through from birth to adulthood. Animals start as an egg and then go through different changes until they become an adult.
Why Is It Important to Learn the Life Cycle of Animals?
Teaching about the life cycles of animals — whether it's a frog, butterfly or chicken — can end up helping students better understand why they undergo physical changes along their own life cycle, just like other organisms.
Although it may be nestled under the science standards, there are elements of social and emotional learning at play too, as students see change and growth as natural — opening them up to empathize with others who are changing and growing.
A life cycle unit helps prepare students to learn about living and non-living things and provides a chance to learn about different species.
Key Life Cycle Vocabulary
Like any science unit, a dive into the life cycle of an animal brings with it a host of new vocabulary terms for kids to learn. Here are some you can't miss!
Egg
The first stage of the life cycle for many animals is the egg.
Larva
Larva is a term specific to the life cycle of an insect — mammals don't go through a larva stage. The word refers to the second stage of an insect's life cycle, where it hatches from an egg and looks very different from the adult form.
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a big word for little people! It is the process of changing form and structure that some animals go through during their life cycle. For example, a caterpillar will go through metamorphosis on the way to becoming a butterfly!
Pupa
This is another vocabulary word that is specific to insects such as the butterfly . In this stage of an insect's life cycle, it undergoes metamorphosis and transforms into its adult form.
Adult
The final stage of an animal's life cycle is "adult." This is where it has reached its full size and can reproduce.
What Are the 4 Stages of the Butterfly Life Cycle?
Students typically learn about the butterfly life cycle in pre-kindergarten or kindergarten, although some science classes may cover this winged creature when students are older as well.
During a study of the butterfly, students will learn the following four stages of its life cycle:
- Egg
- Larva or caterpillar stage
- Chrysalis or pupa stage
- Butterfly (adult!) stage
Why Is the Butterfly Life Cycle Important?
Studying the butterfly life cycle in pre-K and kindergarten gives young students an opportunity to learn how a living thing grows from an egg into an adult, maturing through various stages of life.
It helps kids develop their understanding of the broader world and how different creatures play a role in our ecosystem. Butterflies, for example, are important pollinators that help bees, bats, and other creatures to pollinate over 75% of the world's flowering plants.
Learning About the Butterfly Life Cycle
With this collection of teacher-created butterfly life cycle resources, students will learn:
- Butterfly vocabulary such as pupa, egg, metamorphosis, caterpillar and chrysalis
- How to name the parts of the butterfly
- The stages a butterfly goes through in its life cycle from an egg to a full-formed butterfly
What Is the Life Cycle of a Frog?
Much like a butterfly, a frog's life cycle includes metamorphosis. But instead of larva and pupa, a frog will go through tadpole and froglet stages.
Egg
Just like other animals, the first stage of the frog life cycle is the egg stage. In this stage, a female frog lays her eggs in the water, and the male fertilizes them.
Frog eggs are covered in a jelly-like substance that protects them from predators and parasites.
Tadpole
The second stage of a frog's life cycle is the tadpole cycle. When the eggs hatch, they become tadpoles — fish-like creatures with gills that help them breathe underwater. Tadpoles feed on algae and other small organisms in the water, and they grow quickly during this stage.
During the tadpole stage, frogs have small tails that they use for swimming.
Froglet
As the tadpole grows, it develops lungs so it can breathe air, and its tadpole tail begins to shrink. At this stage of life, the tadpole is called a froglet.
It still has a small tail, but it also has legs! The frog can now leave the water and move onto land.
Adult Frog
The final stage of the frog life cycle is the adult frog.
At this stage, the froglet continues to grow and develop until it reaches its full size and matures into an adult frog. Adult frogs can live on land or in water — depending on the species — and they eat insects and other small animals to survive.