travel_exploreDiscovery · Life cycles

🦋 Life cycles

How does a caterpillar become a butterfly? Simple, true life cycles facts for young children, each with a fun fact, a tiny activity and a question to talk about together.

Tap a question to reveal the answer, share the fun fact, try the tiny activity, then talk about it together.

schedule2 minstarMediumgroupTogether

How does a caterpillar become a butterfly? Revealexpand_more

A caterpillar eats and eats, then wraps itself in a hard case called a chrysalis. Inside, its body breaks down and rebuilds into something new, and after a while a butterfly climbs out, ready to dry its wings and fly.

🌟

Talk about itIf you could change into a completely new creature, what would you become?

⭐

Did you know?Inside the chrysalis the caterpillar turns almost to mush, yet the butterfly can still remember some things it learned as a caterpillar.

🎲

Try itWrap yourself snugly in a blanket like a chrysalis, then slowly "hatch" and stretch out your wings.

Explore the map

🦋🐸How does a tadpole turn into a frog?🦋How do tiny butterflies travel so far?🥚What happens inside an egg before it hatches?

🤖Still curious?Do all insects change shape as they grow?arrow_forward

schedule2 minstarMediumgroupTogether

How does a tadpole turn into a frog? Revealexpand_more

A tadpole hatches in water with a tail and no legs, breathing like a fish. Slowly it grows back legs, then front legs, its tail shrinks away and its gills change into lungs, until it can hop out onto land as a frog.

🌟

Talk about itWhich sounds more fun, swimming like a tadpole or hopping like a frog?

⭐

Did you know?A tadpole's tail does not drop off, its own body soaks it back up and uses it for energy.

🎲

Try itCrouch low and "swim", then slowly stand up and hop. You just acted out a tadpole becoming a frog.

Explore the map

🦋🐛How does a caterpillar become a butterfly?🐟How do fish breathe underwater?🥚What happens inside an egg before it hatches?

🤖Still curious?Can a frog breathe both in water and on land?arrow_forward

schedule2 minstarMediumgroupTogether

Why do snakes shed their skin? Revealexpand_more

A snake's skin does not grow along with it, so as the snake gets bigger it grows a fresh new skin underneath and wriggles out of the old, tight one. The old skin often comes off in one piece, like peeling out of a sock turned inside out.

🌟

Talk about itWhat do you outgrow and have to swap for a bigger size?

⭐

Did you know?A snake even sheds the clear scale that covers each eye, so the old skin has little "eye windows".

🎲

Try itPeel a sock off inside out in one go. That is close to how a snake leaves its old skin behind.

Explore the map

🦋🐸How does a tadpole turn into a frog?🐛How does a caterpillar become a butterfly?🦎How does a chameleon change colour?

🤖Still curious?How often does a snake shed its skin?arrow_forward

schedule2 minstarMediumgroupTogether

What happens inside an egg before it hatches? Revealexpand_more

Inside the shell, a tiny chick grows bigger every day, fed by the yellow yolk. When it is ready, it uses a small bump on its beak, called an egg tooth, to crack the shell and push its way out into the world.

🌟

Talk about itWho do you think helps a baby animal most right after it is born?

⭐

Did you know?A baby bird can chirp to its parents from inside the egg in the days before it hatches.

🎲

Try itGently tap and peel a hard-boiled egg. Imagine a chick doing that work from the inside using only its beak.

Explore the map

🦋🐛How does a caterpillar become a butterfly?🐸How does a tadpole turn into a frog?🐦Why do birds fly away for winter?

🤖Still curious?Which animals hatch from eggs and which are born like us?arrow_forward

🦋 Life cycles

More topics

Sources