🌍 Science & Nature

The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Ages 5–7

You will learn

Put the four stages of a butterfly's life cycle in order: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly.

Before you start

Knowing that living things grow and change.

Quick answer

A butterfly's life cycle has four stages: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult butterfly. The butterfly then lays eggs, and the cycle starts again.

Let’s learn

A life cycle is how a living thing is born, grows, and makes new life. A butterfly has four stages.

The four stages

  1. 🥚 Egg: a butterfly lays tiny eggs on a leaf.
  2. 🐛 Caterpillar: a caterpillar hatches and eats and eats, growing bigger and bigger.
  3. 🫘 Chrysalis: the caterpillar makes a hard case around itself. Inside, its body changes.
  4. 🦋 Butterfly: a butterfly comes out, dries its wings and flies away.

Then the butterfly lays eggs, and the cycle starts again!

Remember the order

Egg → Caterpillar → Chrysalis → Butterfly → (eggs again)

Check what you know

Choose an answer, then press Check. You can try again if you need to.

  1. 1 What is the first stage of a butterfly's life?
  2. 2 What comes out of the egg?
  3. 3 What is the chrysalis stage?
  4. 4 What does an adult butterfly do to start the cycle again?

Try this next

Draw the life cycle as a circle with four pictures and arrows. Then color the butterfly coloring page!