Springtime is all about life cycles in our home. And I'm often asked how do I introduce life cycles to our little ones and to those who couldn't visualize the concept of metamorphosis, larva and pupa, and etc. It's pretty easy and simple though. I start by telling stories that like humans, baby animals come about through their mommies and daddies. Some start from egg and then they develop or grow into an adult just like humans. You also need to have some learning materials to help explain these things better to kids. Because we are observing the "Montessori" philosophy in our homeschool, we use learning materials that can provide realistic presentations of these life cycles to the kids. Also if possible, provide a hands-on learning experience using the same learning materials or through real life observations in nature.

Below are some activities and resources that can aid you and your students in your life cycle studies. I also added some helpful child-friendly and easy to read books to go along with your activities.

ANIMAL STUDY BOOKS FOR KIDS

We love books!!! And we have 3 sets of book series to go along with our animal life cycle studies. These books are easy to read and understand with lots of beautiful and realistic illustrations.

My First Discovery Books Series:

Bee
Frog
Butterfly
The Ladybird
Fish
Turtles and Snails
Birds
Bears / Polar Bears (not in the picture)
Ants (not in the picture)

Backyard Books Series:

Read and Find Out Books Series:

LIFE CYCLE FIGURES

This is the game changer in our studies! The realistic figures have given the kids ideas and a bit of a hands-on experience on what the changes from egg to adulthood of these animals look like. Obviously, we're not able to witness some of these cycles first hand so the figures are a great help. They're really good for younger kids as they capture their attention and curiosity.

Available Animal Life Cycle Figures:

LIFE CYCLE MATS

The kids grew up using and matching animal life cycle mats. I used to make one with real pictures (Montessori Inspired Life Cycle of Insects) but they are limited and I don't have the license to distribute them. Thankfully, there are a few artists who are making realistic representations of these life cycle images and that's what we are using at home. The images perfectly matches our figures and the kids were able to easily identify and match them to the mats.

I currently have a Learning Pack of Animal Life Cycle Mats in the shop, all of these were very helpful in learning the life cycles of the animals. Recently, I've updated this and added more varieties so it will not only show the life cycles of insects but also of other organisms in the Animal Kingdom. You can get the animal life cycle mats here or click the image below:

We have life cycle mats in most of the animals in the Animal Kingdom. Aside from vertebrates (insects) we have snails for mollusks, spider for arachnids, salmon for fish, and polar bear for mammals.

Earthworm for annelids.

Frog for amphibians.

Turtle for reptiles and chicken for birds.

Presenting these to the child (one at a time) will give them ideas on how each of these animals were born (some are from eggs or born as a young) and how they developed into adults. As you can see, Vito loved matching and organizing these life cycle mats. Because of repetition, he became aware and familiar with the words larva and pupa. That larva comes after the egg and that the pupa is the stage wherein most animals are cocooned except for the polar bears because polar bears are mammals.

*** Note that our LIFE CYCLE MATS BUNDLE IS GROWING. I will continue to add mats here as we study more life cycles. And it also includes life cycles of plants. Currently it has the bean plant.

LIFE CYCLE PUZZLES

And finally, we have tons of puzzles to go along with our life cycle studies. If you are following my Instagram, you know by now that my kids love puzzles.

Beleduc Life Cycle Puzzles:

Life Cycle of a Frog Layered Puzzle
Life Cycle of a Butterfly Layered Puzzle

Goki Life Cycle Puzzles:

Life Cycle of a Chicken
Life Cycle of a Tree

And that's about it! With all the resources I laid out, I hope you'll find something helpful for your own school. Let me know if we missed anything!

This post is part of the 12 Months More of Montessori which is hosted by Natural Beach Living and The Natural Homeschool.