Metamorphosis of a Butterfly

Introduction

Learning about a butterfly's life cycle

Discover one of the most amazing transformations in the animal kingdom!

Task

Task

A butterfly changes as it grows.  A butterfly doesn't start it's life as a butterfly, but goes through metamorphosis as it grows into an adult.  You are going to learn more about how a butterfly becomes an adult. 

Your task is to follow a butterly through it's life cycle. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocWgSgMGxOc

You will:

  • Work with a partner, but keep your own notes and draw your own pictures.
  • Learn about each of the stages that a butterfly goes through in its life cycle.
  • Create a poster with your partner that shows your classmates about the life cycle of a butterfly. 

Process

Process

First, you are going to look at how a butterfly changes.  There are four stages.  As you look at each of the four stages, discuss what you see with your partner.  

  • What is different? 
  • What questions do you have?
  • Can you find the answer to your question?
  • Draw what you see. 
  • Write down any questions that you have after you learn about each section.

 

Egg Stage

Look at these pictures and read about the egg of a butterfly. Remember to discuss what you see and read with your partner and draw. 

                         

 Caterpillar Stage                                    

  Caterpillars (butterfly larvae) hatch from butterfly eggs. Caterpillars are insects. Caterpillars live on the plants that they eat. Caterpillars spend much of their time eating. They grow very quickly. It only takes four or five weeks for them to grow to their full size. The caterpillar's skin does not stretch very much. When they become too big for their skin, it splits and a new skin has grown underneath the old one. Caterpillars shed their skins several times. When they are fully grown the skin will split for the last time and it starts to change into a pupa.     

 

 

The Chrysalis

The Chrysalis is also called the Pupa. 

 

 

Butterfly Stage

Finally, our friend has turned into a butterfly. 

                               

 

Activity

Now that you have seen the life cycle of the butterfly, create a poster with your partner showing the life cycle of the butterfly.  Include all four stages with labeled pictures.  Make it colorful and be ready to share with the class. 

Evaluation

Evaluation

 

 

 

 

Self Evaluation

Choose the face that shows how you did.

 

 

I worked well with my partner and talked about what we saw.

 

 

 

I wrote and drew pictures in my journal

 

 

 

  Our poster was neat and colorful

 

 

 

 We included all four stages of the life cycle on our poster

 

 

 Our pictures were all labeled with correct spelling.  (Ask for help!)

 

  

 

 WOW!

I went above and beyond in some way.  
Conclusion

Conclusion

Complete metamorphosis has four stages: egg, caterpillar (larva), pupa and adult butterfly.  Now that you have complete the webquest, you will understand a lot more about butterflies than you did before and you will have become an expert on the life cycle of a butterfly.

If you want to learn more about butterflies, you can visit some of these websites.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterflies/allabout/

http://www.mesc.usgs.gov/butterfly/Butterfly.html

I hope that you learned a lot and had fun!

Credits