Young children are naturally curious, especially when it comes to the world they live in. Conversations about life cycles nurture this curiosity while building foundational skills such as sequencing and cause and effect. By exploring how plants and animals grow and change, children also gain a deeper understanding of the natural world.
For young children, life cycles are more than a fun science topic they learn about every spring. The topic of life cycles reflects the changes that children experience as they grow. Just as a seed grows into a towering sunflower, or a caterpillar transforms into a beautiful butterfly, young children are constantly gaining new skills and discovering their potential.
The activity in this article will introduce children ages three through six to the topic of life cycles in an engaging way, helping to strengthen their early literacy, math, and critical thinking skills.
With over 50 years of experience in early childhood education, Kaplan recognizes the value of classroom activities that are grounded in research and align with educational best practices. The activity in this article was inspired by the Gryphon House books The Giant Encyclopedia of Preschool Activities for Four-Year-Olds, Dig In: Outdoor STEM Learning with Young Children, and Loose Parts Alive: Inspiring Child-Led Nature Explorations, as well as the Pre-K curriculum Connect4Learning®.
This activity makes a great addition to morning circle time discussions, large group play, and small group or individualized lessons.
This activity begins with a large group discussion about various life cycles involving frogs, butterflies, bees, flowers, and other plants or animals. Books such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and Frog by Maggie Li can help facilitate this discussion. Explain to children that nature is full of changes, and just like the plant or animal you are discussing, they too will grow and change with time. Conversations around the topic of life cycles can help children:
Once you conclude your life cycle discussion, you are ready to begin the Leaping Life Cycles activity. First, you will need to clear enough space in your classroom so that children can safely move around without bumping into furnishings or each other. If space is limited, decrease the number of children who participate in the activity at the same time. In your cleared space, use masking tape or some other visual element to create a starting point and an ending point. The starting point depicts the first phase of the life cycle, and the ending point depicts the final phase.
As a group, choose an animal or insect from your earlier life cycle discussions to focus on during the activity. This will determine how children move as they go through each life cycle phase. For example, they may need to wiggle like a tadpole, hop like a frog, flutter like a butterfly, or crawl like a caterpillar.
Have all children participating in the activity stand behind the starting point to begin. Roll the die and ask the children to call out the number it lands on. This number determines how many spaces forward the children will move. Make this fun and encourage the children to move toward the ending point by using prompts like:
The goal of this activity is to help the children move through each phase of their chosen animal’s life cycle. Once the group reaches the ending point, they can start over and choose another animal, insect, or plant to focus on.
As children identify the numbers on the die and count the number of spaces they are moving throughout the activity, they are building early math skills. For older children, you can use a pair of dice to introduce math concepts such as addition and subtraction. Children must also use their critical thinking and sequencing skills to determine the correct order of each animal’s life cycle.
There are many ways you can incorporate literacy into this activity. Before the children move to a new phase of each life cycle, ask them to name the letter that begins with that phase. For example, “C” is for caterpillar or “T” is for tadpole. Encourage children to make the sound of that letter as they move. You can also incorporate phonological awareness and pre-reading skills by asking children to say a word that rhymes with the life cycle phase they are in. Examples of this include: “Bee” - “Knee” and “Egg” - “Leg.” For older children, encourage their imaginative storytelling skills by asking them to describe their journey through each phase of the life cycle as they move.
Due to limited classroom layouts or the physical abilities of children in your classroom, it may not make sense to plan activities that require physical space and gross motor movements. What you can do instead is set up the activity on a classroom tabletop. Children can use colorful shapes, scraps of paper, blocks, and even life cycle replicas, instead of their bodies, to move forward through the phases of life. You can still incorporate math, literacy, and scientific elements into your discussions as children play.
By moving this activity to a tabletop, you decrease the number of children playing at one time, allowing you to personalize the prompts and activity instruction based on the developmental needs of individual children.
The inspiration for this activity came from the Gryphon House books The Giant Encyclopedia of Preschool Activities for Four-Year-Olds, Dig In: Outdoor STEM Learning with Young Children, and Loose Parts Alive: Inspiring Child-Led Nature Explorations, as well as the Pre-K curriculum Connect4Learning®.
These resources also offer more activity suggestions to help children build critical thinking, literacy, math, and social skills.
Not only is this activity physically stimulating, but it also introduces early math and literacy skills while teaching children scientific concepts regarding the cycles of life. Use it as inspiration while planning your weekly lessons, and feel free to make changes to better suit the needs of the children in your care.
Before you go, download a PDF version of this article to quickly and easily refer to the materials, activity details, and enrichment opportunities.