Free Butterfly Life Cycle Worksheet
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This free butterfly life cycle worksheet is perfect for helping young learners connect with nature. It’s the perfect addition to your life cycle activities for kids.
These simple no-prep printables are perfect for busy homeschool moms. Spring and summer are the perfect time of year to learn all about butterflies.
Preschoolers, kindergarteners, and early elementary students can use these worksheets to review the sequence of the life cycle of a butterfly.
Teaching the life cycles of living things is an important part of any preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary science curriculum.
Life cycles are a great way to help students learn about the world around them. By understanding how living things grow and change, they can better understand the process of life.
Life Cycle of a Butterfly
The life cycle of a butterfly is fascinating. Butterflies begin their lives as eggs, which are laid on the leaves of plants.
The egg hatches into a larva, or caterpillar, which begins to eat its way through the plant. As it grows, the caterpillar molts, or sheds its skin. Once it has reached its full size, the caterpillar spins a cocoon around itself and enters the pupal stage.
During this time, the butterfly undergoes a metamorphosis, emerging from the cocoon as a fully-formed adult. Adult butterflies typically live for only a few weeks, during which time they mate and lay eggs before dying. However, some species of butterfly can live for up to 12 months.
The life cycle of a butterfly is truly an amazing sight to see!
Preparing the Worksheet
This one-page printable requires no advanced preparation. Just print and go! If your kids don’t enjoy coloring, you can print this activity on colored printer paper or print the color version.
You can also make this a reusable activity by printing it on cardstock and laminating it for durability. Cut out the sequencing cards at the bottom of the page.
Add a velcro dot to the backside of each sequencing card and in each empty box on the worksheet. Then, the kids can sequence the life cycle of a butterfly over and over again.
What Skills Are Covered?
I love when one simple activity covers so many skills! That makes teaching so much easier. This worksheet does just that! But, what skills does it cover?
• Science: Children will learn how butterflies grow from egg to adult. They’ll learn new vocabulary words associated with how butterflies grow – egg, chrysallis, larva, pupa, caterpillar, etc.
• Logic: Sequencing events is a great logic-building activity. Kids learn to put things in the order that they happen. This skill helps children make sense of the world around them.
• Motor Skills: Cutting paper with scissors helps children strengthen the small muscles in their fingers, hands, and wrists.
• Hand-Eye Coordination: Gluing the sequencing cards in order (or lining them up with the velcro dots) helps strengthen hand-eye coordination. Kids will have to align the sequencing cards on the mat straight so that they all fit properly.
Butterfly Life Cycle Books
I love reading to my little ones. I try to incorporate books into our day as often as possible. While teaching your kids about butterflies, share some of your favorite books to learn more about them.
Not only will your kids enjoy listening to you read, but you’ll have an opportunity to model important early literacy skills to them. Check out this list of a few of our favorites:
- National Geographic Kids Look and Learn: Caterpillar to Butterfly
- How Does a Caterpillar Change? Life Cycles with the Very Hungry Caterpillar
- How Does a Butterfly Grow?
Butterfly Worksheets
If your children enjoy the worksheets featured in this post, you may enjoy the following activities which will help you round out your butterfly unit study.
- Butterfly books for preschoolers
- Tissue paper butterfly craft
- Butterfly life cycle sequencing activity
- Butterfly stamping process art
- Find the letter: B is for butterfly
