Butterfly Life Cycle Elementary Science Lesson
A Unit Plan to Teach Primary Students How Caterpillars Grow
Mar 5, 2009
Elementary science lessons are most effective when they are hands-on. Kindergarten and first grade students can learn how a caterpillar changes into a butterfly by watching them grow in a butterfly garden in the classroom. After the caterpillars have gone through the four stages of the life cycle and emerged from the chrysalis as butterflies the students release them outdoors.
Butterfly Life Cycle Elementary Science Lesson Objective
Kindergarten and first grade students will identify and document the four stages of the butterfly life cycle.
Teach Elementary Students the Four Stages of the Butterfly Life Cycle
The elementary teacher begins the lesson by asking students to tell her what they know about caterpillars and butterflies. The science teacher writes the students’ butterfly background knowledge on the K section of a KWL chart. The primary students compose questions about the life cycle of a butterfly that they would like to know the answers to and the teacher writes their questions in the W section of a KWL chart.
The teacher reads a book about the life cycle of a butterfly such as From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman [Harper Collins, 1996]. The class discusses the story and uses the new information to answer their W questions. They write their answers in the L section of the chart.
Butterfly Life Cycle Elementary Science Lesson Pasta Activity
The teacher reviews the egg, caterpillar, pupa and butterfly stage of the butterfly’s life cycle using the trade book. She passes out a butterfly life cycle worksheet to the students. The worksheet is divided into four sections.
The teacher holds up a small round piece of pasta and asks the students what stage of the butterfly life cycle the pasta looks like. The students answer the egg stage and glue the round pasta onto their papers. They label the first section as egg and write a sentence about the egg next to the pasta.
The class repeats this procedure using different shapes of pasta for each stage of the life cycle. A spiral shaped pasta is used for the caterpillar stage, a shell shaped pasta is used to represent the chrysalis in the pupa stage and a bowtie shaped pasta is used for the butterfly stage.
How to Grow Butterflies in an Elementary Science Classroom
Kindergarten and first grade students can watch caterpillars turn into pupae and emerge from a chrysalis as butterflies in their classroom. Science teachers can purchase butterfly houses online and receive live caterpillars and food in the mail. The students can document the life cycle stages the caterpillars go through and then release the butterflies outdoors.
Kindergarten and first grade students learn about the life cycle of a butterfly by reading a butterfly trade book such as From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman. Students can then use different shaped pasta to represent the egg, caterpillar, pupa and butterfly stage of the life cycle. After learning about each stage elementary students can watch real caterpillars grow into butterflies in their classroom and then release them into the sky.
For more information on how to use a KWL Chart read: How to Teach Thanksgiving to Kindergarten Kids.
For more elementary science lesson plans read: How a Plant Grows Science Lesson and Pumpkin Pie Math and Science Lesson Plan.
