The central concept of this lesson is to have kids recognize that no individual living thing (plant, animal, or other) lives forever. Every kind of living thing (species) maintains itself as a living thing on Earth through producing offspring–a new generation that replaces the older generation as it dies off. The steps from one generation to the next is known as the organism’s life cycle. While every species features a life cycle involving mail and female and fertilization to produce the first cell of the “baby”, the details very greatly from one sort of organism to another as kids can discover through observation.
For an overview of major variations in life cycles type into your browser:
lifecycle images
So fare as possible, facilitate kids making first-hand observations that make the general concept of life cycles and some of their variations real. First-hand observations may be facilitated and/or supplemented with:
Watching how baby chick developments within the egg and hatches, video:
Butterfly lifecycle video
Butterfly eggs, medium for growing caterpillars, etc. for making first hand observations can be purchased. Complete lifecycle requires observations over 4-6 weeks. See:
Fruit flies are classic for observing the typical insect life cycle. Their life cycle is completed in 10 days to two weeks. If you choose not to capture and rear your own fruit flies as described in the text, you may purchase flies and culture medium from: