Butterfly life stages

Topic: Life Cycle of a Butterfly
Lesson Objective: Learners will demonstrate knowledge of/understanding of/ability to: understand the life cycle of a butterfly.
The teacher will have the children recollect what they have learned in previous lessons about organisms reproducing offspring of their own kind. The offspring resemble their parents and one another just as we do. Today we will learn that life stages are different for different organisms. We will research today the life cycle of a butterfly.
California Content Standard:

2. Plants and animals have predictable life cycles. As a basis for understanding this concept:
b. Students know the sequential stages of life cycles are different for different animals, such as butterflies, frogs and mice.
Subject Matter and Grade Level: Life Sciences: Grade Two

Web Resources:
1. Enchanted Learning: This particular site on Enchanted Learning is devoted specifically to butterfly eggs, however it has direct links to research all of the stages of the butterfly. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/lifecycle/Egg.shtml


2. Butterfly Insect museum: this site takes the student directly to photographs of the stages of the butterfly. In addition to this if offers links for further exploring; more photos, maps showing migration, information on collecting as well as how butterflies eat.
http://www.hondurasbutterfly.com/life_cycle.htm

3. Monarch Butterfly Metamorphosis: This site is dedicated to step by step information regarding the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly. It shows actual photographs of the stages and explains the stages very clearly.
http://butterflybushes.com/monarch_metamorphosis.htm

Questions for Research:

1. Can butterflies talk to other butterflies and if so how?
2. What is a common name for a butterfly larva?
3. What color are butterfly eggs?
4. What are butterfly wings covered with?
5. A butterfly’s body is divided into three parts. Name the three parts.
6. What are a butterfly’s four stages of life?
7. How many pair of legs does a caterpillar have?
8. What is another name for a chrysalis?
9. What is a caterpillar’s first meal?
10. Most adult butterflies live about how long?