Cool Butterfly Life Cycle Noodles Craft

When my husband’s class was raising their Painted Lady Caterpillars from Insect Lore they did a really neat simple craft to learn the different stages of a butterfly’s life cycle.

You can see it above and it’s pretty self-explanatory. They took paper plates (just pieces of paper would work too!) and separated them into 4 sections (1 section for each stage). You’ll need a variety of noodles for this craft but one box of each goes a LONG way!!! You can use them for multiple classrooms for about $4! you’ll need Bow-tie noodles, shells, Rotini, and Acini di Pepe.

Stage 1

Stage 1 (the egg) the students glued on tiny little noodles that sort of looked like Acini pasta.

Stage 2

Then for Stage 2 (the pupa/caterpillar!) they used the spiral noodles.

Stage 3

Stage 3 (for the chrysalis) they used shell pasta noodles for the actual chrysalis, and small sections of brown pipe cleaner for the stick which the chrysalis attaches to.

Stage 4

And lastly, Stage 4 (the butterfly!) they glued on bowtie pasta noodles! You can have the kids colors the different stages and if they can write, have them write the names of each stage in the appropriate section!

Learn how to tag Monarch Butterflies here!