A robin lays her eggs in spring, not in the middle of a frosty January. Why do you think that is?
Hands up your guess: what would a tiny newborn bird need that January just cannot give it?
Today's words: life cycle: the stages a living thing grows through, from its start to making the next generation. Cycle: a loop, where the last stage leads back to the beginning. What a stage needs: the warmth, food, daylight or shelter that stage must have.
Why do we draw a life cycle as a ring and not a straight line?
Let's build the frog's life cycle together. Watch as the cards join up: frog spawn, then tadpole, then froglet, then adult frog.
Look at the arrow that runs from the adult frog back to the spawn. Why does it loop back to the start instead of stopping?
The frog life cycle
In your group you have stage cards for the frog, the butterfly and the oak. First, make your season strip: fold a sheet of A4 into four columns and label them spring, summer, autumn and winter, then draw two lines across for a frog row, a butterfly row and an oak row, like the picture. After that it is talking and card-moving only: the writing comes next.
Work through the steps on the card below. For every stage the question is the same: what does it need, and which season gives it? Be ready to say why each card sits where it does.
Now that your cards are placed, write down what your group decided. This is the first time you write it. Choose one of the three life cycles, the frog, the butterfly or the oak, and fill in one row of the table for each of its stages: the stage, what it needs, the season you chose, and why then.
Keep your reasons short: "the caterpillar needs soft new leaves, and those grow in spring."
If you finish early, use a spare row for one stage from another life cycle.
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