Spring Butterfly and Chicken Life Cycle Projects

In my class, we have been learning all about various life cycles. We just finished our butterfly life cycle unit, and my students created the project below as one of the final projects of the unit. It's great to see their knowledge come full circle! We used small, white pop-poms for the butterfly egg, a brown or black pipe cleaner cut to the size of a caterpillar to model a caterpillar, an uncooked shell-shaped pasta noodle that the students painted for the chrysalis, and then finally an uncooked bow- tie pasta noodle painted to create a beautiful butterfly.

In addition to learning about the life cycle of a butterfly, we learned about the life cycle of a chicken and created these projects! We used construction paper for the nest, the egg, and the chick. My aide cut dark brown, light brown, white and yellow construction paper into small rectangles, so the students were able to easily cut down the paper to create their nests, eggs, and chicks. If you don't cut down the pieces into small rectangles, it becomes difficult for many students to form the objects. Students used their markers to create the "broken egg" in the second step of the life cycle. For the baby chick, students added feathers using Elmer's glue, and used their markers to create the face and legs of the chick. Finally, we used brown washable paint to make the adult chicken by painting students' hands. The students also embellished the chicken using their markers.