Grade Level: 3-6
Duration: 120 minutes
Subjects: Science, Visual Arts, Language Arts, Math
Learning Objectives
All living things have life cycles, but these cycles vary between species. Observing and comparing these stages helps us understand growth, change, and the interconnectedness of life. Students will:
- Identify and describe the main stages of a life cycle in plants, insects, and amphibians.
- Compare similarities and differences among species’ life cycles.
- Recognize how environmental factors can affect life cycles.
- Develop observation and data recording skills.
Materials
- Clipboards or notebooks
- Pencils/coloured pencils
- Magnifying glasses or bug viewers (if available)
- Pictures or diagrams of different life cycles (butterfly, frog, sunflower, etc.)
- Access to a schoolyard, pond, or garden area (or online images if indoors)
Curriculum Connections
- Science: Growth and changes in plants, habitats and communities, biodiversity, classification, observation, recording data, communicating findings.
- Math: Counting, measuring growth, making charts.
- Visual Arts: Drawing life cycle stages.
- Language Arts: Writing descriptive or reflective journal entries.
Terms
- Life Cycle: The series of stages a living thing goes through as it grows, changes, reproduces, and eventually dies.
- Species: A group of living things that are the same kind and can reproduce with one another (for example, frogs are one species, butterflies another).
- Stage: A step or part of a process. Each part of a life cycle is a stage (egg, caterpillar, butterfly).
- Reproduction: The process by which living things make more of their own kind.
- Habitat: The natural home or environment where a plant or animal lives and grows.
- Adaptation: A trait or feature that helps a living thing survive in its environment.
- Metamorphosis: A big change in shape or form that some animals go through during their life cycle (for example, a caterpillar changing into a butterfly, or a tadpole becoming a frog).
- Seed: The part of a plant that can grow into a new plant.
- Germination: The process by which a seed starts to grow into a plant.
- Pollination: The process of moving pollen from one flower to another, helping plants make seeds.
Instructions
Introduction – What is a Life Cycle?
Ask students:
- What does life cycle mean?
- Can you name the stages a frog or butterfly goes through?
Show short clips or images of each type (e.g., seed to flower, caterpillar to butterfly, tadpole to frog).
Discuss how every living thing grows, changes, and reproduces in a cycle.
Exploration
Option 1: Outdoor Version
Take students outside to look for living things in different stages of life.
- Plants: seeds, seedlings, flowering plants, seed pods
- Insects: eggs, larvae/caterpillars, adults
- Amphibians (if near a pond or wet area): tadpoles or frogs
Students record observations (drawings, notes, counts).
Option 2: Indoor Version
Use photos or classroom plant kits and magnified samples. Have students record their observations.
Explain
Discuss:
- What did you notice about how living things change over time?
- How are these stages similar or different across plants, insects, and amphibians?
Create a chart comparing two or three species’ life cycles.
Elaborate
Students choose one organism and:
- Create a poster or mini-book showing each stage of its life cycle.
- Label and describe what happens at each stage (growth, reproduction, transformation).
Include a ‘what it needs to survive’ section (water, food, sunlight, habitat), similar to that of the red fox and beaver in the field kits.
Reflection
- Why do all living things have life cycles?
- What might happen if one stage of a life cycle was interrupted?
- How does understanding life cycles help us care for the environment?
Extensions
- Math: Track growth of seedlings and create a line graph.
- Art: Make a clay or collage model showing life cycle stages.
- Language Arts: Students act as nature reporters covering breaking news about a metamorphosis event and write a short article or record a short news segment using facts from their observations. Example headlines: ‘Local Caterpillar Becomes Butterfly Overnight!’, ‘Breaking: Froglet Makes First Leap to Land!’
- Science: Discuss how pollution, habitat loss, or climate change can disrupt these cycles and what students can do to help (e.g., planting pollinator-friendly flowers).
