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Caterpillars and Tadpoles

Follow a monarch from egg to butterfly and a frog from eggs to hopping, act out every stage, cut and sort the stage cards, then compare them with how you grow. For ages 2 to 7.

Ages 2–7 · 7 pages · 10–15 min a page

Download free LetterA4 · PDF

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First page of Caterpillars and Tadpoles

Small children are fascinated by things that change. A caterpillar that hangs very still and comes out with wings, or a tadpole that grows legs and loses its tail, is the kind of real-life magic they want to hear about again and again.

This pack follows two animals around their life cycles: a monarch butterfly (egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly) and a frog (eggs, tadpole, little legs, froglet, frog). Each circle has painted stage pictures, short captions, a medallion that says how long it takes, wonder questions and one checked fact, like the caterpillar whose first meal is its own eggshell.

Then the stages leave the paper. Children curl up like an egg, wiggle like a caterpillar, sway like a chrysalis and hop like a frog, cut out nine mixed stage cards to sort and glue in order, and finish by ticking what is true for a butterfly, a frog and themselves before drawing how they have grown. Every page has an easier and a stretch idea for ages 2 to 7, and it all prints on Letter or A4.

What’s inside

  1. 1Cover: what’s inside, what you’ll need and a nature-watch log
  2. 2Before you start: how to use it, three ways to play and safety notes
  3. 3From egg to butterfly: the monarch life cycle in four stages
  4. 4Act it out: a move for every butterfly and frog stage, plus three games
  5. 5From egg to frog: the frog life cycle in five stages
  6. 6Mix, sort and glue: nine stage cards to cut out, sort and put in order
  7. 7Same or different: compare a butterfly, a frog and me, then draw how I grow

Why this matters

Life cycles are one of the first big ideas in science: living things grow and change in an order, and the circle starts again. Seeing it in pictures, saying it out loud and acting it out with their whole body helps young children remember the steps, and comparing the animals with themselves makes the idea their own.

Age bands

Every activity page has an easier and a stretchier way in, marked with these bands:

  • Sprout 2–3
  • Seedling 3–5
  • Sapling 5–7

Letter is the standard paper size in North America; A4 is used almost everywhere else.