When it comes to insects, the butterfly is a firm favorite for life cycle activities. The scope for science and cross-curricular learning is so broad! If you’re looking for ways to engage your children with the life cycle of a butterfly, here are some ideas.
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Go butterfly spotting
Choose a warm and sunny day in late spring or during the summer to explore school grounds or local nature areas. Avoid very cloudy, windy, or wet days – butterflies are less likely to fly in these conditions.
- Search for evidence of leaves chewed by caterpillars, or very gently turn them over to look for eggs.
- Use a simple spotter sheet like this one from Wildlife Watch (UK). Look at it together before heading out so children can become more familiar with the common species they might see.
- To avoid bored children, recce the area you’re going to use first to make sure it’s a site that butterflies use.
- Keep still and quiet where possible. Butterflies are sensitive to sudden movement and shadow.
Plant a butterfly garden
Long-term, the chances of having butterflies in your school grounds may increase if you have the right plants for them to feed on or lay their eggs on. Choose a spot that’s sheltered and sunny, and get kids involved in the planting and maintenance of a butterfly nature garden.
- Choose nectar-rich native plants for adult butterflies. Varieties that flower at different times of year will give you the best diversity of butterfly species.
- Mix in some caterpillar food plants. Most butterfly species will only lay eggs on one or two types of plants, so be specific in your choices. Your local nature charity or butterfly group should be able to advise.
- Sometimes the best plants for butterflies and their caterpillars are weed weeds – messy wildlife gardens are ok!
Making the most of science models
There are some great insect life cycle sets on the market that allow children to observe the features of the different stages in a hands-on way. Insect Lore and Safari Ltd both offer realistic (although not-to-scale) plastic models that can be used for sequencing, labelling, and developing observational skills. They are ideal for younger learners who will be able to count the number of legs, wings and note similarities and differences between the stages.
Hatching butterflies in the classroom
Watching the butterfly life cycle first-hand is a magical and memorable experience. Insect Lore is a popular option for schools as you can buy the pop-up net habitat along with the caterpillars, their food, and the kit comes with full instructions.
Children can record their observations at various stages over approximately 3 weeks. This can provide opportunities for labelling, sequencing, and data collection for follow-up work.
It’s worth noting that sometimes a butterfly may not make the whole life cycle. When rearing butterflies in the past, I’ve occasionally had one not emerge at all, or emerge with malformed wings (and unable to fly). Some children may find this distressing, but it shouldn’t take away from the fun of releasing the ones that made it!
Free butterfly life cycle worksheets
For a quick and easy butterfly life cycle activity, these free cut and paste worksheets (PDF) will have children either sequencing the life cycle stages, or matching labels to the pictures. The images are specifcally for the painted lady, so you could use these alongside hatching butterflies. A great way to build fine motor and scissors skills alongside learning about butterflies.
Alternatively, if you want to check out the full painted lady caterpillar and butterfly pack, designed to use alongside hatching butterflies, you can find it in my TPT store here.
Get arty!
When I saw these real microscopy photographs from Linden Gledhall on Flickr, I fell in love! It’s fascinating to observe the detail that our eyes alone can’t see.
These beautiful images of the overlapping scales and iridescent colors on adult butterfly wings are a perfect starting point for butterfly wing inspired collages or other artwork.
Make a life cycle foldable mini-book
Making a mini-book is a fun way to record the life cycle of a butterfly in a hands-on way. They can be glued into science books for future reference or used to make a colorful classroom display. Make your own template with words and pictures, or buy one ready-to-download. My differentiated printable templates are available on TeachersPayTeachers
Get moving!
Why restrict the life cycle fun to science? Invent movements for the different butterfly life cycle stages and play a whole-class game. For example, curl in a ball for ‘egg’, star jump for ‘butterfly’, do the worm for ‘caterpillar’. Choose a caller to shout out the words in a random order. Children do your chosen movements. Increase the speed, add eliminations or more complicated movements for older children.
Introducing the butterfly life cycle
If you’re kicking off a butterfly life cycle lesson and want an engaging visual to introduce it to your students, you can download this PowerPoint presentation from my TpT store. The presentation is full of beautiful butterfly images, butterfly life cycle facts, and describes the whole process from egg to adult insect.
A Google Slides version is also available to purchase here.
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