Animal growth
All animals have a life cycle, but they can be very varied and different.
As part of their life cycle all animals, including humans who are animals too, have offspring which grow into adults.
Watch – What is a life cycle?
All animals go through the same important stages during their lifetime.
What is the life cycle of an animal?
Humans and other animals may look very different and behave very differently.
But we all have one thing in common.
All animals, including humans are born, they get older and bigger and mostwill go on to have children of their own.
And these children will get older and may also have children, and so on.
We call this a life cycle.
As you grow older, how you look will change a lot.
And one of the most amazing changes in nature is the life cycle of the butterfly called… metamorphosis.
Me-ta-mor-pho-sis.
When a male and a female butterfly reproduce, the female lays eggs somewhere safe.
When these eggs hatch out, they become caterpillars.
This is called the larva stage.
It doesn't look much like a butterfly yet, does it?
Eventually the caterpillar builds a chrysalis around itself, a bit like a sleeping bag.
A few days or weeks later, it finally wakes up and breaks free…an adult butterfly at last!
It can fly away to reproduce and eggs of its own, continuing the cycle of life.
Fascinating life cycle facts
- Humans are animals too.
- Some insects lay their larvae in other living things, like the parasitic wasp which lays eggs in moths which will hatch and eat the moth!
- An insect called the pharaoh cicada lives in its pupa stage underground for up to seventeen years.
- Kangaroo offspring, called joeys, develop for six months living in a pouch on the front of their mother.
The life cycle of a frog
Frogs lay eggs called frogspawn.
Tadpoles hatch from those eggs. They have tails and gills which allow them to breathe underwater.
Over time the tadpoles lose their tails and gills and grow legs.
They then become fully grown frogs, and then can lay more eggs and the life cycle can begin again!
How do animals grow?
Image caption, Butterflies
Butterflies go through a metamorphosis as part of their life cycle. They hatch from an egg as a caterpillar, then build a chrysalis to transform into a butterfly.
1 of 5
Did you know?
A baby is the first stage in the animal life cycle.
At this early stage, almost all babies and offspring need their parents to provide food and shelter for them so that they can grow up into adults.
Many birds lay their eggs in nests where they will then raise their chicks after they hatch.
Stages of a human life cycle
After they are born, baby animals change and grow to become adults. This happens very quickly for animals like birds and rabbits. It happens much more slowly for animals like humans.
An adult animal can have its own babies. Eventually, this animal will die and its life cycle is complete.
Watch: Animal life cycles
Butterflies change a lot during their life cycle.
A life cycle is the journey of a living thing from beginning to end.
Some species produce offspring that look similar to them, like us humans. But the young of some other species are very different from their parents and go through huge changes as they grow into adults. This is called metamorphosis.
No, a much bigger change than that.
Let's take a look at a frog. Female frogs lay eggs or frog spawn in ponds that look a bit like this. The eggs are in the middle, surrounded by that jelly. The frogspawn hatches into these little creatures called tadpoles which live in the pond.
After a few weeks, the tadpoles grow little legs, and their tails disappear. Eventually, they grow into frogs and can leave the pond and breathe on land.
In time, these frogs will be able to lay their own frogspawn and their life cycle will begin again.
But frogs aren't the only animals that go through metamorphosis. Butterflies also go through a lot of changes during their life cycle.A female butterfly lays her eggs on a leaf out of which hatches a larva or caterpillar.
The caterpillar feeds on the leaves and plants around it. After a few weeks when the caterpillar, has eaten enough and grown big enough. It begins to make itself into a pupa or chrysalis.
It builds itself a cocoon to hide in but inside all sorts of changes are happening.
After several days an adult butterfly will emerge and the whole life cycle will begin again
Think about how different the adult butterfly is from the young caterpillar. All plants and animals follow the life cycle of their species. Some are short, and some are long. Some species of butterfly live for just a few hours, while a human being's life cycle can last for over one hundred years.
The life cycle of a butterfly
When a male and a female butterfly reproduce, the female lays eggs somewhere safe.
When these eggs hatch out, they become caterpillars.
This is called the larva stage.
Eventually the caterpillar builds a hard shell around itself called a chrysalis.
A few days or weeks later, it breaks free from the chrysalis as an adult butterfly.
It can then fly away to reproduce and lay eggs of its own, continuing the cycle of life.
Important words
Chrysalis – A hard casing, also called a pupa, which a caterpillar lives in as it changes into a winged butterfly.
Frogspawn – The eggs of a frog which are laid in ponds and lakes.
Larvae – Insects, spiders and frogs all hatch from eggs as larvae before eventually changing into their adult forms.
Life cycle – The different stages of living for any animal, from birth to adulthood.
Metamorphosis – The change in physical form of an animal in a life cycle, like tadpoles changing into frogs.
Offspring – The children or young of an animal.
Pupa – A case or cocoon in which an insect makes its metamorphosis.
Tadpole – The larval form in the life cycle of a frog, where the offspring grows arms and legs and becomes a frog.
Larvae An insect after it hatches from an egg before it changes to it's adult form.
Activities
Activity 1 – Ordering life cycles
Activity 2 – Life cycles quiz
Activity 3 – Draw the life cycles of different animals
Easter Holidays Activity Pack activity
Check out some Easter inspired activities to complete in the Easter Holidays, for KS1.
More on Animals including humans
Find out more by working through a topic
- count11 of 12
- count12 of 12
- count1 of 12
- count2 of 12
