Butterfly and Frog Life Cycles Compared

A butterfly and a frog head two columns at the top right of this 3rd grade page, and eight statements run down the left, each with a check box under each animal. The child reads a sentence and checks the butterfly, the frog or both when it is true for that animal. The statements on the sheet shown are: The grown-up catches insects to eat. The grown-up has six legs. It hatches from an egg. Its young has no legs at first. The grown-up drinks nectar from flowers. Its young swims with a tail. Its young looks very different from the grown-up. It spends one stage as a chrysalis.

Comparing two cycles is the grade 3 move, and it is where children stop learning a sequence and start learning a pattern. Both animals hatch from eggs and both change shape dramatically; only one has a pupa; only one starts life in water. Two statements are true for both animals and the rest for one, so there is no easy rule to guess by. The statement about legs is worth a pause: caterpillars do have legs, short ones near the head, so it is only the tadpole that begins without any.

One sheet, eight statements, ten checks in all. Ask children to explain one of the both answers aloud, since that is where the comparison really happens. This page supports NGSS 3-LS1-1, which asks students to see life cycles as a pattern of birth, growth, reproduction and death. It is the top of the animal life cycles family and follows the base butterfly page and the frog cut and paste naturally.