Beautiful Butterfly Nature Study - Part 1

Butterflies must rate as one of the most beautiful science topics we can enjoy with your children. So, let’s plan a meaningful, hands-on, and fun butterfly nature study!.

I want to inspire you to find out more about them with some fascinating facts, our free printable about butterflies and moths, activities for high school much more.

Butterfly Life Cycle

The stages in the life cycle of a butterfly are so amazing they are an ideal way to start off a joy in nature which can last a lifetime.

Stage One: Egg

Butterfly Egg
Image credit: Michelle Moody 2025

The adult butterfly lays 10-100 eggs on the underside of leaves.
The egg is a tiny object, little larger than a pinhead.
As you can see from this photo, the eggshells of most butterflies have intricate patterns when seen close up, with radiating ribs, spines and protrusions and a small depression (the ‘micropyle’) through which air penetrates to the embryo.

Stage Two: Caterpillar

Monarch Caterpillar (credit Michelle Moody, 2025)

The egg hatches into a caterpillar or larva.
Most caterpillars have 12 simple eyes that can sense light and dark but do not see clear images.

Caterpillars spend most of their time eating and can eat many times their own body weight.
As they grow, caterpillars can increase their size hundreds to thousands of times before forming a chrysalis.

Stage Three: Chrysalis

Chrysalis
Image credit, Michelle Moody

The larva changes into a chrysalis or pupa.
In the chrysalis stage of the life cycle of a butterfly, their body breaks down into a kind of nutrient-rich soup, while special cells (called imaginal discs) build the adult butterfly.
Nearly all chrysalises stay hidden from predators by using camouflage, looking like leaves, twigs, or even bird droppings.
Some chrysalises make small sounds to frighten predators away.

Stage Four: Adult

When the adult’s body is fully formed inside the chrysalis, the adult or imago stage in the life cycle is reached and the butterfly emerges.
When a butterfly first emerges, its wings are soft and crumpled. It hangs upside down and pumps fluid into its wings to expand and harden them.
Butterflies get their colors in two ways, some of the colors come from pigments, and others come from the way light reflects off tiny scales on their wings, creating bright, shimmering colors.
Adults spend their time feeding, finding mates, and laying eggs.

Facts About Butterflies

By now, I think you can tell we’ve enjoyed ourselves in our homeschool by finding out the facts that make these insects fascinating! Here are a few more of our favorite facts:

Monarch butterflies have been spotted as high as 1,000 feet in the air.
Some species migrate long distances, with the Monarch covering as much as 2,000 to 3,000 miles.
The largest butterfly is the Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing, with a wingspan up to 1 foot (30cm) wide. It lives in the rainforest of New Guinea and you could use it to tempt your kids to join our rainforest for kids homeschool science project, where we’ve used our butterfly craft skills to make beautiful butterflies with holographic wings.
Butterflies are important pollinators and help many plants grow.
The numbers of many species have declined alarmingly in recent years.

Other Insect Resources

Homepage | Pollinator.org

Monarch Watch

Butterflies and Moths of North America | collecting and sharing data about Lepidoptera

Monarch Joint Venture – They have some online classes (for a minimal fee). Some are for the entire family, some are self-paced.

Journey North | Tracking Migrations & Seasons

How To Create An Insect Collection

Insect Printable Worksheet

Butterfly Life Cycle Kit

Butterfly Craft

There are lots of activities you can do with butterflies which make use of their beauty and also teach fun homeschool craft skills.

Kids love being active and running round, especially in the summer. We show you a lovely butterfly craft where you make crepe paper butterflies and attach them to cane hoops so that as your kids run the butterflies fly along beside.