Life Cycles

Every LIVING thing — you, a tree, a butterfly, a fish — goes through a LIFE CYCLE. That means it starts as a baby, grows up, and eventually helps make new living things. Today you will meet some of the most amazing life cycles in nature.

The most famous life cycle:\n\n**1. EGG** — tiny egg on a leaf\n**2. CATERPILLAR (larva)** — baby caterpillar hatches, eats LOTS\n**3. CHRYSALIS (pupa)** — caterpillar wraps itself in a case and transforms\n**4. BUTTERFLY (adult)** — beautiful adult flies away\n\nThis amazing change is called METAMORPHOSIS — "meta" (change) + "morph" (shape).

**1. SEED** — small and hard\n**2. SPROUT** — seed soaks up water, cracks, and a tiny green stem comes out\n**3. PLANT** — leaves and stem grow bigger\n**4. FLOWER** — blossoms appear\n**5. FRUIT or NEW SEEDS** — flower becomes fruit with seeds inside\n**6. NEW SEED** — the cycle starts over\n\nFrom one apple seed, you can get a whole tree with hundreds more seeds.

Frogs also go through metamorphosis:\n\n**1. EGG** — jellyball in a pond\n**2. TADPOLE** — baby frog with a tail, lives in water, breathes through gills like a fish\n**3. TADPOLE WITH LEGS** — grows back legs first, then front legs\n**4. FROG** — loses tail, gets lungs, hops out of water!\n\nFrogs are the only animals that live TWO different lives — first as swimmers, then as jumpers.

You have a life cycle too!\n\n**1. BABY** — helpless, drinks milk, sleeps a lot\n**2. CHILD** — learns to walk, talk, read (that is YOU!)\n**3. TEENAGER** — grows fast, body changes\n**4. ADULT** — fully grown, can have their own children\n**5. OLDER ADULT** — body slows down, wisdom grows\n\nHumans live about 80 years. Pretty slow compared to a butterfly (4 weeks!).