Look at this tiny egg. What do you think it might become? How could something so small end up looking completely different?

Today's words:

Life cycle: the stages an animal goes through as it grows and changes, then starts again.

Stage: one clear part of that story, where the animal looks or lives differently.

A butterfly starts as a tiny egg. What do you wonder about how it grows?

Your group has two sets of cards, but start with the butterfly ones only, and leave the frog cards face down for now. Lay the butterfly cards out in a line, from the egg at the start to the adult at the end, and talk about where each one belongs before you decide.

When your butterfly line is settled, open the frog cards and build that line the same way. Be ready to show your lines to the class and tell the story along them.

The butterfly cycle is on the board, but one stage has been put in the wrong place on purpose.

Find it. Then say why a real butterfly could not do it that way.

Now the frog cycle goes up beside the butterfly one.

Look at the two together. What is the same about them? What is different?

Both start in the same place. Only one has a stage where the animal stops moving about and changes inside.