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Butterfly Life Cycle Activities & Free Printables

May 5 By Linda Kamp 18 Comments

Raising butterflies in our classroom is always a highlight and this year was no different! We went hands-on all the way as we learned about the stages of the life cycle, metamorphosis, pollination, the compound eye and more. Read on to see all of our butterfly life cycle activities, experiments and the fun ways we integrated math! You’ll definitely want to try these high engagement activities when it’s time to raise butterflies in YOUR classroom!

Butterfly life cycle resources and free printables your students will love!

Butterfly Life Cycle Activities

Waiting anxiously for our caterpillars to arrive, we read several informational books and started a KWL chart to write down any questions we had. Most students have some prior knowledge about the butterfly and its life cycle, but my students still had a lot of good questions.

Butterfly life cycle KWL anchor chart.

With our books at the ready and our charts in place my class was very excited to get started! What was taking those caterpillars so long?

Butterfly life cycle nonfiction texts and picture books for class read alouds.

Butterfly Life Cycle Lessons

I use a teaching PowerPoint with vivid, real-life photos to teach lessons on metamorphosis, adaptations, pollination, the compound eye and more.

butterfly life cycle science lessons on PowerPoint

Click here to see the butterfly PowerPoint lessons.

Each lesson has embedded videos so students can see what they’re learning happening in real life.

students watchng video on table of monarch butterfly laying eggs

Students can also label parts of a caterpillar  and butterfly with interactive diagram slides in the PowerPoint.

students labeliing parts of a caterpillar diagram

Observe the Changes

When our caterpillars finally arrived, the first thing we learned was how to handle them with care.

Butterfly life cycle observation journal Lesson 1- Handling our caterpillars with care.

Each student received their own caterpillar and of course, they named them! Pure kid-heaven! I order a classroom butterfly set from Amazon with a coupon for a class set of caterpillars.  Some years when they arrive the caterpillars are as small as a tiny thread and other years they are about 5 or 6 days away from forming a chrysalis.  You never know what you’re going to get, so be ready!

To help observe the changes up close everyone got a hand lens. We used our butterfly life cycle journals to record dates and the changes we observed each day.

Butterfly observation journal to record the changes during the life cycle of our butterflies.

Students added the dates of significant changes in their caterpillars to a calendar.

Butterfly life cycle math activity-Discussion cards and calendar to collect data and record changes on a calendar.

Once the life cycle was complete and our last butterfly emerged from it’s chrysalis we compiled and discussed the data we recorded. I then placed everyone in groups with discussion cards. Students used their calendars to compare dates and data, discuss with their friends, and count the days between changes in the butterfly life cycle. We later graphed this data on 4 brightly colored graphs, but more on that in a minute!

Get students writing about science

Butterfly life cycle metamorphosis lesson.
As our butterfly life cycle activities progressed, we had several mini-lessons along the way. After each lesson we added our written responses to our culminating project, a foldable butterfly booklet.
Butterfly life cycle minibooks

Each piece of the booklet coincides with a mini-lesson and a writing activity. It’s a great way to get students writing about science as they explain what they are learning about the butterfly’s life cycle.

Butterfly life cycle lapbook-a creative way to get kids writing about science and create a learning portfolio.

Another fun way to get kids writing is to make a butterfly life cycle on a string. Students write about each stage in the mini leaf booklets. All of the pieces tuck inside the large leaf pocket.

Butterfly life cycle Activities- Life cycle on a string with mini books for students to write about each stage of the life cycle of butterflies.
Click here for the templates for this craft.

Explore Pollination with Macaroni & Cheese!

Pollination lesson on how butterflies help plants grow.

To go along with our lesson, I showed my class this stunning pollination video from Ted Talks on YouTube made by filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg. It’s an amazing look at insects pollinating flowers through time lapse and slow motion photography.

The Beauty of Pollination by filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg on Ted Talks

Try A Pollination Simulation

This cheese powder pollination experiment answers the question, How do butterflies help plants grow?. To find out, we did an easy pollination activity to simulate how butterflies, bats, birds and insects transfer pollen.
Butterfly life cycle activities-Pollination science experiment during our 2nd grade study of butterflies.

To my 2nd grade class, heaven on earth is wearing butterfly feet on your finger!

Butterfly life cycle activities-Pollination science experiment during our 2nd grade study of butterflies.

The bristles of the pipe cleaner represent the tiny hairs on an insect’s legs and feet. Perfect for holding pollen.

What to do with all the leftover macaroni?

FREE Butterfly facts commas in a series activity.

Make commas of course! Use the leftover macaroni for students to practice using commas in a series. Add this easy activity to your literacy centers for students to practice reading skills using science content.

Click here to download this FREE Butterfly Facts commas in a series page.

Explore the Butterfly Compound Eye

Exploring the compound eye is always a hit! Students get a first hand look at how the compound eye is unable to change focus or see detail. Using kaleidoscopes to simulate an insect’s eye helps students to understand that an insect sees color and movement through thousands of lenses.

Butterfly life cycle activities-Compound eye lesson and experiment.

As we learned how a butterfly’s compound eye helps to protect them, my students explored this further in a learning lab. Students used toy kaleidoscopes (I purchased them on Amazon) to imagine life through an insect’s eyes and to compare a compound eye to a simple eye.

Butterfly life cycle learning lab science experiment-Exploring a butterfly's compound eye.

“Looking” through a butterfly’s compound eye is so much fun!  Students get a first hand look at how the compound eye is unable to change focus or see detail. Using kaleidoscopes to simulate an insect’s eye helps students to understand that an insect sees color and movement through thousands of lenses. Their vision isn’t necessarily clear, but they can see the important things, like color to signal food and movement to signal danger or a predator may be near. Butterflies, and many insects, see the things that are important for their survival.

Incorporate Butterfly Math Activities

Butterfly life cycle math activity-Discussion cards and calendar to collect data and record changes on a calendar.

As we watched the life cycle progress, students added the dates of significant changes to a calendar. I then placed everyone in groups with  discussion cards. Students used their calendars to compare dates and collect data, discuss with their friends, and document the days between changes in their caterpillars.

Butterfly life cycle math activities-Collecting data by recording the changes to caterpillars as they progress through the life cycle.

Butterfly math measurement activity-Measuring paths the caterpillar crawled. A fun way to integrate math during you butterfly life cycle activities.

To integrate math into our butterfly unit, we did this teacher guided activity measuring how far a caterpillar crawls.

Butterfly math measurement activity-Measuring paths the caterpillar crawled. A fun way to integrate math during you butterfly life cycle activities.

Students carefully placed their caterpillars on the page then marked the distance the caterpillar crawled before stopping. After a few stops and starts students measured and compared the lengths of the paths their caterpillars crawled.

Graph the Life Cycle

In addition to measuring and adding lengths, we also graphed the life cycle. Students used the calendars they kept to determine how long it took to reach each stage. These easy to prep butterfly graphs are so much fun and they give students a visual reference for comparing how long it took individual caterpillars to pass through each stage of the life cycle.

Graphing the butterfly life cycle-We collected data by recording significant changes in our caterpillars then graphed the life cycle on a graph for each stage.

Read more about our butterfly graphing and see how students used their data to make bar graphs and line plots. (Be sure to download the FREE butterfly measurement activity there too!)

Incorporate Reading Skills

Being a butterfly is not all sunshine and nectar. Butterflies have their problems too. Match solutions to the problems that all butterflies face and assess your students’ knowledge at the same time!

Butterfly life cycle activities-Problem solution to incorporate reading skills while learning about butterflies.
Because we read many informational books, students had lots of opportunities to decode longer words. My class was quite proud of themselves as they used words like camouflage, metamorphosis, and pollinators during our discussions and in their writing.
Butterfly vocabulary picture cards.

As a way to fit it all in, we completed some of the writing, vocabulary mini books, and diagrams for our butterfly booklets during our literacy center time. Others parts we did after our learning labs or during our writing time.

Once we were finished and our butterflies released, we added all of our mini-books and writing to the butterfly booklets.  We delighted our families with by displaying them at our Spring open house where we turned our hallway into a life cycle garden!
Butterfly life cycle foldable lapbooks in our life cycle garden open house hallway display.

Find all of these hands-on butterfly life cycle activities in a complete science unit for grades 1-3. The unit includes detailed, 2-week lesson plan with 9 engaging mini-lessons, butterfly science experiments, foldable butterfly booklet and so much more!

Click here to see the Butterfly Life Cycle Science Unit.

Butterfly Life Cycle Science Unit

Get FREE posters for your classroom

Add your personal email below (because most schools block outside emails with attachments) and I’ll send you this free Butterfly Life Cycle Poster Pack!

Raising butterflies at school is always such a highlight! I hope you’ve found some butterfly science activities you can use in your classroom! Be sure to pin this post so you’ll have it when you plan!
Butterfly life cycle activities & FREE printables. Find creative butterfly activities and science experiments for First, 2nd, and 3rd grade students learning about butterflies, caterpillars, pollination, the compound eye and more!
You might also enjoy these science activities for your students! 
Butterfly Garden Hallway Display
end of year life cycle garden hallway display
Hands-On Plant Life Cycle Activities & Experiments
Plant life cycle activities for kids-Hands on science activities perfect for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students to learn about plant needs, adaptations, photosynthesis, pollination and more.
Exploding Seed Pod Seed Dispersal STEM Activity
Seed dispersal activity- A fun science experiment and STEM challenge for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders to learn about exploding seed pods while studying the plant life cycle. Students build a model of this plant adaptation and explore how seeds travel.
Properties of Matter Activities for 2nd Grade Science

Properties of matter activities and experiments for 2nd grade. Learn creative teaching ideas and fun, hands-on science activities for kids learning about solids, liquids, and gas in second grade.

4 Things to Teach in Science at the Beginning of the Year
Teaching ideas and beginning of the year science activities for 2nd and 3rd grade.
Happy teaching!
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    Filed Under: butterfly life cycle, Freebies, Science, Writing Tagged With: butterflies, foldable lapbooks, life cycles, science, writing about science

    Comments

    1. Learning in Wonderland says

      May 5 at 3:03 am

      Hands down, the BEST butterfly unit I've ever seen. I have a bunch of butterfly units now, and your's outdoes them all 🙂

      Reply
      • Linda says

        March 16 at 9:59 pm

        Thank you so much Maribel! I’m so glad it has what you need and hope your class enjoys it!

        Reply
    2. Rachel Lamb says

      May 6 at 1:18 am

      ^^agreed! fabulous Linda!

      Reply
    3. Allie Glissen says

      March 28 at 2:23 pm

      What did you use for the pollen with the pipe cleaners? If you would, email me.

      Reply
      • Linda says

        March 28 at 2:49 pm

        Hi Allie, We used macaroni and cheese powder then used the leftover macaroni has commas in the freebie in the post. Unfortunately you didn’t leave your email address so I hope you find your answer here. Thanks so much for stopping by!

        Reply
    4. krystin says

      April 25 at 6:49 am

      where did you get your caterpillars?

      Reply
      • Linda says

        April 25 at 7:08 am

        Hi Krystin,
        We order our caterpillars from Insect Lore online.

        Reply
    5. Cassidy says

      September 19 at 4:09 pm

      What did you use for the powder on the butterfly pollination?

      Reply
      • Linda says

        September 20 at 9:26 am

        Hi Cassidy,
        We used mac and cheese powder for the pollen. Thanks so much for stopping by and for asking!

        Reply
    6. Maryann Lanzikos says

      March 27 at 11:13 am

      Absolutely love your ideas! I’m planning a butterfly S.T.E.A.M. time and was hoping to get the life cycle printable pictures. I’ve tried searching many ways, but no luck. Can you figure out what I’m doing wrong?

      Reply
      • Linda says

        March 28 at 7:00 am

        Hi Maryanne,
        Thank you! I’m so glad you like the ideas in the post! You can get the free poster pack by subscribing to our newsletter in the form at the bottom of this post. Once you subscribe you will be sent an email with a link to download the posters. Be sure to check your spam folder and any other folders for the email.

        Good luck with your S.T.E.A.M project and thanks so much for asking!
        Linda

        Reply
    7. Molly says

      April 14 at 6:47 pm

      Love the pollination activity! Where did you get your flowers? Do you have a pattern?

      Thank you!

      Reply
      • Linda says

        April 15 at 5:14 pm

        Hi Molly!
        The pollination lab and all of the templates are part of the butterfly life cycle science unit that is featured in the post. You can find it here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Butterfly-Life-Cycle-Complete-Science-Unit-1808862.

        Thanks so much for stopping by and for asking!
        Linda

        Reply
    8. Linda says

      September 17 at 10:16 am

      Hi Kelly,
      Did you fill in the form in this post? That will send you the posters. If you did not receive the email be sure to check your spam and all other folders.

      Reply
    9. Whitney Smith says

      January 12 at 9:18 am

      This is an amazing unit! I’m looking at using the ideas during our Tier time since our whole-group reading is pretty stacked on time. How long did it take you to complete the entire unit? Where did you get the butterflies?

      Reply
      • Linda says

        January 14 at 11:05 am

        I’m so glad you like the unit, Whitney! It’s definitely one of our highlights each year.
        I usually spend about 2 weeks on the unit. You can order class sets of caterpillars from InsectLore.com.

        Reply
    10. D says

      March 18 at 12:55 pm

      A great unit!! Thank you for all your hard work!

      Can the butterfly unit be done without the caterpillars? Could I use just the videos and sheets you have in the unit?

      Reply
      • Linda Kamp says

        March 28 at 8:07 am

        You’re so welcome! I hope the unit is helpful for you! Yes, the unit can be done without caterpillars and raising butterflies. You would skip the observation journals and one of the math activities. None of the other activities require that you are raising butterflies.

        Reply

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