Life cycles

1. Where do butterflies come from?

4. and a kitten is a baby cat. Cats are …

5. Look again at these pictures. What can you tell me about these animals?

6. What about rabbits?

7. Some animals are very different from their parents, …

10. Can you think of an animal that changes many times before becoming an adult?

12. Butterflies go through four life stages, and they look very different at each stage…

13. Stage One Mummy butterfly lays her eggs safely on a leaf. She tries to find a nice large, healthy plant so that the newly born caterpillars have lots of fresh food!

14. What can you see?

15. Stage Two Once the baby caterpillar hatches from its egg it begins the primary growth stage of this insect. The caterpillar eats lots and lots of leaves so that it grows big and healthy.

16. What is this?

17. Stage Three Now the caterpillar weaves a chrysalis or pupa out of silk to keep him safe whilst he transforms into a butterfly.

18. Do you remember this?

19. … and, what are these?

20. Stage Four When he is ready he opens the chrysalis and emerges as a fully formed butterfly.

21. … the adult butterfly emerges!

22. Do you remember the 4 stages?

23. ADULT CHRYSALIS EGGS CATERPILLAR

24. Can anybody think of another animal that looks completely different to its parents when it is born?

25. I thought about frogs…

26. Stage One Here are hundreds of eggs laid by the mummy frog. Can anybody tell me what ’ s the special name given to frog eggs? F R O G S P A W N

27. Once the eggs hatch the baby frogs swim free in the pond. They do not have any legs yet, instead they have a tail. Does anybody know what baby frogs are called? Stage Two T a d p o l e s

28. The tadpole begins to grow some legs. First he grows two back legs to help him swim quicker. Soon the baby frog will grow two front legs. Stage Three

29. Once the baby frog has four legs he doesn ’ t need his tail anymore. Although if you look closely at this picture you can see-it is still there really-just very small! Stage Four

30. The life cycle of a frog Eggs Tadpole Tadpole With legs Young frog Adult frog

33. Remember!!!

34. What does the baby frog have in common with the baby butterfly? Can you tell me? Like the baby butterfly, baby frogs come from eggs. Do baby puppies or kittens come from eggs? What other animals do not come from eggs?

35. What happens when the baby butterfly and the young frogs hatch from their eggs? Is anybody around to take care of them? What about puppies and kittens do their mummies and daddies look after them while they are babies? What does mummy do to look after them? Would a little human baby be able to look after himself?

36. The End