Objective:
The students will identify and label the butterfly life cycle.

Materials

• Books or web sites which contain information on the butterfly life cycle.  Butterfly by Mary Ling or Are You a Butterfly? by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries are good book choices.  Butterflies for Kids and Enchanted Learning are good web sites.

• Chart Paper or Chalkboard

• Butterfly Life Cycle Worksheet

Procedure

1. Ask the students what they know about caterpillars and butterflies.  Write their responses on chart paper or the chalkboard.

2. Read the chosen book or share information from one of the web sites.  Discuss the different stages of the butterfly life cycle.

3. Ask the students what new facts they have learned about the life cycle and add those to the chart paper or chalkboard.

4. Pass out the Butterfly Life Cycle Worksheet and have the students draw and label the stages.  Younger students may illustrate the metamorphous with pieces of pasta.  Use the following types of pasta for the different stages:
   Butterfly Egg - a small piece of pasta, or even a grain of rice.
   Caterpillar - rotini or gemelli 
   Chrysalis - shell pasta
   Butterfly - bow tie pasta

Other Lesson Ideas

1. Have a lesson on insects.  What are the three parts of insects and where are they located on butterflies?  Compare butterflies to other types of insects.

2. Make butterfly dictionaries.  Have the students write definitions for different words associated with butterflies.  For example, migration, chrysalis, metamorphous, etc. could all be entries.

3. Have a lesson on camouflage and how some butterflies blend into their surroundings.

4. Have the students brainstorm other animals and plants that go through changes.  For example, tadpoles turning into frogs, seeds growing into plants, baby animals growing bigger, leaves changing colors, etc.  Emphasize the cycle of life.

5. Have a lesson on migration.  Why do animals migrate?  What animals besides butterflies migrate?  Use the Journey North web site for information.