Plant and animal life cycles are topics taught from an early age. However, as students get older, you may wonder how you can teach these without repeating the same activities that were taught in lower grades.
Check out these plant and animal life cycle activities for your older students.
Teach Similarities in Plant and Animal Life Cycles
Teaching students to look for patterns among all plant life cycles and all animal life cycles can deepen your students’ understanding.
As students begin to compare life cycles of various plants and animals they can look for these four main stages:
- Birth
- Growth
- Reproduction
- Death
Teach About Unique Plants and Animals
In lower grades students typically learn about the life cycle of plants using a lima bean and the life cycle of animals using a butterfly.
As students get older, you can teach them life cycles using different animals and plants.
Use Read Alouds and Research
Teach plant and animal life cycles using a variety of read alouds. Give students the opportunity to research and study the life cycles of a wide variety of plants and animals.
You can also watch videos on youtube to expose your students to unique and interesting animals and plants.
Here is a list of some interesting plants and animals to research:
- Penguins
- Turkeys
- Bald Eagles
- Salmon
- Sea Turtles
- Chicken
- Ladybug
- Apple Trees
- Pumpkins
- Pine Trees
- Sunflowers
- Oak Trees
- Lima Beans
- Watermelon
Need Plant and Animal Life Cycle Resources?
Grab our life cycles and traits unit! While this resource is aligned to third-grade NGSS, it includes a wide variety of resources that you can use to teach life cycles and inherited traits across many different grades.
