Skip to Main Content
Tadpole to Frog

Stages of Growth

Students will investigate the growth stages of various animals and work collaboratively to illustrate those stages using Model Magic.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

Steps

  • Step 1

    Show students images of a tadpole, a chrysalis, or a hairless pink baby panda. Ask the class if they can identify what these will become. Can they picture a fully grown frog, a colorful butterfly, or a black and white furry panda? Talk about the stages of growth that all animals go through, including humans. Note some interesting facts about why animals look different at various stages. For example, many animals, especially hoofed, four-legged mammals, walk shortly after birth because their survival depends on it. Humans, who walk on two legs, require a more delicate muscle coordination. Plus, a human head can only get so big before birth, so the brain is not fully developed.

  • Step 2

    Have students form groups, and have each group choose a different animal to research. Ask them to look at images of the stages of growth of this animal, then have each member of the group sculpt a stage of the growth out of Model Magic. 

  • Step 3

    Have teams present their sculpted work and discuss the stages of growth of the animal they depicted.

Standards

SCI:  Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

SCI: Design pictorial or graphic representations/models that are useful in communicating ideas.

Adaptations

Have students investigate some rare and unusual animals. Suggestions include the pangolin, the elephant shrew, the Yangtze finless porpoise, the black-spotted cuscus, or any others.

Have students illustrate the growth stages of a flower, from seed, to seedling, and eventually to bloom.