The Best Butterfly Life Cycle Activities for Kids

I am so excited to share these wonderful Butterfly Life Cycle Activities with you. I hope after reading this you enjoy exploring life cycles with your children too. As a homeschool mom, you have the freedom to teach your kids about anything. We try to do it in a way that’s fun, engaging and entertaining. So, today I am sharing some tips on how you can teach your kids about the butterfly life cycle in a fun, educational way. Plus we have added hands-on activities, butterfly life cycle crafts, and free printables.

Teaching Kids About the Butterfly Lifecycle

The Best Butterfly Life Cycle Activities

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Read Butterfly Books

Books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar will teach your kids about the butterfly life cycle in a fun, colorful way. After you have read a couple of butterfly books with your kids take a moment to explain about the four stages of a butterfly.

The stages of a butterfly life cycle are called metamorphosis, which means change. Take a moment to show the kids each page of this book from egg to larva which is a caterpillar, from caterpillar to a chrysalis where it then grows into a beautiful butterfly.

You can start with simple butterfly books that share a basic way to teach young kids about the butterfly life cycle or have a few different books on hand for a variety of ages and interests.

Some of our other Favorite Butterfly Books are:

Hands-on Science Activity

If you’re up for the challenge, you can have your kids create their own butterfly habitat at home to watch the metamorphosis happen. Monarch butterflies feed on milkweed whereas other butterflies will feed on wildflowers.

Our Favorite Live Butterfly Kit is from Insect Lore

If you are up for the challenge and have caterpillars around to care for you can make your own caterpillar and butterfly habitat

Gently pull the caterpillar off their feeding spruce and bring it home in a ventilated jar. Using old plastic bottles have your kids create a habitat that has moist leaves, and a stick set like a ramp within the habitat. Make a cover out of mesh wire so that the caterpillar can breathe inside of this homemade habitat.

You need to make sure you have plenty of fresh leaves for the caterpillars to eat. Placing the leaves in water or adding fresh leaves daily will provide them the food that they need. You can also rinse the leaves with water or give them a daily spritz so your caterpillars will be able to drink and stay healthy.

Observing The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Releasing Butterflies

Like a Butterfly, I am growing and changing and finding my true colors in life.

I’m finding my wings so I can fly and soon be on my way!

-Unknown

Create a Butterfly Life Cycle Journal

If you can add in hands-on science activities as we’ve mentioned here, then adding a butterfly life cycle journal or drawing daily changes to your caterpillar and the habitat are perfect ideas.

Make a note of how often the caterpillar needs food replenished, how energetic the caterpillar, and any other changes your kid’s notice within the habitat. This will help encourage your kids to learn about metamorphosis on a deeper level as they will be fully involved in watching the process occur. The butterfly life cycle journal is a great way to recap the lesson once the caterpillar has completed metamorphosis.

The book featured in some of the pictures here is Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the Natural World by Julia Rothman – It’s such a lovely book for kids and adults.

Free Butterfly Printables

This butterfly printable pack includes:

2 Butterfly Writing Prompts

4 Letter Bb Cards in manuscript and cursive (These can be used with salt or glitter glue for texture letters or just display them for a letter Bb week)

The Life Cycle of a Butterfly Coloring Page

Butterfly 3 Part Card

Your child can use the Butterfly Writing Prompts in the printable pack to write stories about their butterflies. You will also get a lovely large Butterfly 3 part card. These are perfect for word recognition.

There are some great vocabulary words to use when you teach about the butterfly life cycle. Some words that you can teach your children are; Life cycle, butterfly, caterpillar, larva, chrysalis, pupa, and metamorphosis.

The lifecycle of a butterfly is something beautiful, and it’s amazing to watch a little caterpillar turn into such a beautiful winged insect that we call a butterfly. I hope you get the chance to enjoy these natural science activities with your children.