Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

• Have you ever seen a caterpillar?

• Where did you see it?

• Did you know caterpillars come from tiny, round eggs?

All insects lay eggs and hatch from eggs.

• Can you think of some other animals that hatch from eggs?

• Do you see the eggs on the leaf below?

These little eggs will hatch into caterpillars.

When a butterfly is a caterpillar, it is in the larval stage of its life cycle.

While it is a caterpillar, it will spend most of its time eating! They eat lots and lots of food to get all the nutrients they need.

They use these nutrients to help them grow larger and prepare for the next stage of their life cycle.

Watch the video below to see a happy caterpillar snacking on some leaves.

After the caterpillar has eaten and grown, it will create a chrysalis. This is called the pupal stage.

The caterpillar stays inside the chrysalis until it has grown into a butterfly.

Watch the video below to see a monarch caterpillar building a chrysalis and transforming into a butterfly.

Fantastic! You learned about the life cycle of a butterfly.

Before moving on to the Got It? section, say out load what hatches out of butterfly eggs!