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Animal Life Cycles: Grow a Frog, Butterfly, Robin and Rabbit

Animal Life Cycles

Grow a Frog, Butterfly, Robin and Rabbit

Learn how animal life cycles work by helping a frog, butterfly, robin and rabbit grow, from egg or birth to adult, one hands-on stage at a time.

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What you'll learn

  • How a frog changes from frogspawn to tadpole, froglet and adult
  • What metamorphosis means and which animals go through it
  • The butterfly stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis) and adult
  • Why birds incubate their eggs and what a fledgling is
  • How mammal babies grow inside their mother, then drink her milk
  • Why animals that care for their young have fewer babies

About this adventure

Animal Life Cycles is a free interactive game that teaches children aged 8–11 how mammals, amphibians, insects and birds grow and change. It follows the Year 5 science topic of comparing life cycles.

Guided by Bramble the hedgehog, players make each stage happen: they tap to lay frogspawn, drag the sun across the sky to pass time, feed algae to tadpoles and leaves to a caterpillar, build a robin's nest and keep the eggs warm. Along the way they meet key terms such as metamorphosis, larva, pupa, incubation, gestation and fledgling, each explained in one short line.

A life-cycle strip fills in as every stage is reached, and a round-up asks players to compare the four animals. Instructions are read aloud, and the game works with touch, mouse or keyboard.

Questions and answers

What are the stages of a frog's life cycle?

A frog's life cycle goes from frogspawn to tadpole, then tadpole with legs, froglet and adult frog. The big change from a tadpole that breathes with gills to a frog with lungs is called metamorphosis.

How does a caterpillar turn into a butterfly?

A caterpillar eats, grows and sheds its skin several times, then forms a hard case called a chrysalis, or pupa. Inside, its body is rebuilt, and an adult butterfly pushes its way out and pumps its wings open.

How is a mammal's life cycle different from a bird's?

Most mammal babies grow inside their mother and are born alive, then drink her milk. Bird babies grow inside hard-shelled eggs that a parent keeps warm, which is called incubation, before hatching as chicks.

What age is the Animal Life Cycles game for?

It is designed for children aged 8 to 11 and matches the Year 5 science topic on life cycles. Instructions are short and read aloud, so younger children can also play with a little help.

What does the Animal Life Cycles game include, and how long does it take?

It has four guided chapters, for a frog, a butterfly, a robin and a rabbit, plus a round-up that compares them. Playing everything takes about 25 minutes, and each chapter can be played on its own.

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