Makayla Coggins

ELED 3221
October 2016
INDIRECT INSTRUCTION (STRUCTURED DISCOVERY) LESSON PLAN FORMAT
Life Cycle of a Butterfly
Elementary Science Grade 2
_____________________________________________________________________________
Central Focus/Big Idea: Organisms, Metamorphosis
Subject of the lesson: Life Cycle of a Butterfly
Grade Level: Grade 2
NC Essential Standard(s):
2.L.1 Understand animal life cycles.
Next Generation Science Standards:
3-LS1-1
Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles
but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

21st Century Skills: Interpretation and synthesizing information Students are expected to take
what they have learned in the lesson and chronologically order it while creating their own
illustrations of what is going on in each stage. Collaboration- Students are expected to work as a
whole group and in partners effectively, as well as independently.
Academic Language Demand
Language Function: Students are expected to explain the reasons why we have moon
phases.
Analyze
Interpret

Argue
Predict

Categorize
Question

Compare/contrast
Retell

Describe
Summarize

Explain

Scientific Vocabulary: metamorphosis, life cycle, egg, chrysalis, caterpillar, butterfly,

transformation

Instructional Objective: After the lesson, students should understand the life cycle of a butterfly
and the transformational process of how it turns from an egg into a butterfly. They should be able
to call each stage by name and describe what happens in each stage. They will be expected to
create their own illustration and write their own sentence about what happens in each stage.

Prior Knowledge (student): Students should know that many things in nature occur in patterns.
Students should also recognize that the life cycle of a butterfly occurs in a specific sequence and
it continues to repeat itself.
Content Knowledge (teacher): The teacher should have a clear understanding of the life cycle of a

butterfly and be able to explain why each stage is important to the overall outcome.
Accommodation for Special Needs/different learning styles: Students with learning
disabilities will need to be closer to the instructor when the class is going over the Prezi
presentation. For ELL students, a translator will be on hand to explain the things that they do not
understand and to aid in writing sentences.
Materials/Resources:
Prezi Presentation (Life Cycle of the Butterfly)
Butterfly Template: 1 per student
Life Cycle of a Butterfly Worksheet: 1 per student
Glue stick: 1 per student/enough to share
Scissors: 1 per student/enough to share
Colored pencils/crayons/markers: enough to share
Video: http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=47886
Estimated Time: 30-45 minutes
Source of your lesson: Worksheet from
https://www.pinterest.com/source/moffattgirls.blogspot.com
Safety considerations: Students are to be careful with scissors at all times, making sure not to
run with them or throw them.

Makayla Coggins
ELED 3221
October 2016
______________________________________________________________________________
Content and Strategies (Procedure)
This lesson is intended to be used in conjunction with this Prezi Presentation:
http://prezi.com/vndzmkfrpafa/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
Engage:
1. Say to the students, Today, were going to be talking about butterfly life cycles! Then
ask the following:
a. Raise your hand if you have ever seen a butterfly. (Ideally, every student will
have a hand raised.)
b. Great! So everyone knows what a butterfly is, right? Raise your hand if you
know how a butterfly becomes a butterfly. (Ideally, some students will not have
their hands raised.)
c. Well it looks like theres still some stuff to learn! Our lesson today focuses on
metamorphosis. Who can raise their hand and tell me what metamorphosis
means? (Call on a couple of students and then move to slide 3 to explain.)
Explore:
1. Change to slide 4 on PowerPoint. Say to class, On this slide, I have 4 pictures. Each
picture represents a different stage in the butterflys life cycle, or metamorphosis. I know
that you do not know what each stage is called. However, based solely on the pictures, I
would like you to try to determine which order they happen in. You may have two
minutes to turn and talk to your partner about the order. After the students have turned
and talk, allow a few to share their thoughts and reasons.
2. Change to slide 5 on PowerPoint. Say to class, On this slide, I have 4 words instead of
pictures: Chrysalis, Butterfly, Egg, and Caterpillar. Once again, I want you and your
partner to try to determine the order in which these four stages happen. You have two
more minutes. After the students have turned and talk, allow a few to share their
thoughts and reasons.
Explanation:
1. Move to slide 6 on PowerPoint. Say to the class, Before we discuss whether or not we
put the stages in the right order, we are going to watch a short video. (Use video
http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=47886) As the video goes on, ask
students questions, like the following: What are the stages? What order do the stages
happen in?
2. Use slides 7-11 on PowerPoint for the explanation. Say to the students, Now that you
have watched the video, lets go over the stages!
a. Slide 7. Metamorphosis of a Butterfly. Think about the order that you and your
partner put these in earlier. In your head, try to remember if you were right.
b. Slide 8. Stage 1 is the eggs. Eggs: Before hatching, the mother butterfly lays her
eggs on a leaf. As you can see, there are many eggs on this one leaf. Thats a lot of
caterpillars!

c. Slide 9. Stage 2 is the caterpillar! Caterpillar: Upon hatching, a caterpillar comes

out of the egg.
d. Slide 10. Stage 3 is when the caterpillar forms a chrysalis. Chrysalis: The
caterpillar closes itself up in a chrysalis, or cocoon, and waits until it becomes a
butterfly. There is only one caterpillar per chrysalis. It is also important to know
that not every chrysalis looks exactly the same. This one is green, but some are
clear, and some are yellow.
e. Slide 11. Stage 4- the last one! Butterfly: The caterpillar leaves the chrysalis as a
beautiful butterfly. Now this butterfly will lay eggs and the cycle will repeat.
Elaborate:
1. Use the butterfly template and slide 12. In this activity, students will need to use the
butterfly template in order to create a life cycle. Each 1/4th part of the wing represents a
different stage. The students will be instructed to write the stage and create a
corresponding image in each part. They may choose to decorate their butterfly and cut it
out, at teacher discretion. Preface this activity with asking what kinds of things they
should draw for each stage. Also, for ease, include a word bank on the board: Eggs,
Caterpillar, Chrysalis, and Butterfly. An example to show the students will also facilitate
understanding of the activity.
2. This task can take as much time as the teacher wants- detail of drawings is left to the
teachers discretion. This activity can be completed as a class collaboratively or
independently. For my class, we will be collaborating and discussing as we go.
Evaluate:
1. Use the Life Cycle of a Butterfly worksheet and slide 13. To demonstrate mastery of the
life cycle lesson, students must obtain 6 out of 8 points on the Life Cycle of a Butterfly
worksheet. On the worksheet, the children must correctly order the stages of
metamorphosis and then write a corresponding sentence.
Summative Assessment: Students must obtain 6 out of 8 points on the Life Cycle of a
Butterfly worksheet in order to demonstrate mastery.
Formative Assessment: Teacher will formatively assess the students through observations of
participation and work.
To be complete after the lesson is taught as appropriate
Assessment Results of all objectives/skills:
In the end, the students showed a very strong understanding of the content. After assessing the
independent practice portion of this lesson, it was apparent that the students had grasped the
content and were able to apply it accurately. On the life cycle worksheet, every participating
student met objective. They were able to clearly and correctly label the stages while providing a
brief sentence about the stage. I noticed no discrepancies between what I taught and the work
that the students completed.
Reflection on lesson:
Overall, I am extremely satisfied with the results of this lesson. I prefaced my teaching with
saying Today, I am going to do a science lesson and every face in the room lit up. The students
were so excited to do science that they didnt even care what standard we were focusing on. I
believe this says a lot about our education system. It is disheartening that science (and social
studies) are marginalized within schools, because the students really do enjoy these topics. With

that being said, this lesson on butterfly metamorphosis was welcomed with open arms. The
students were engaged from beginning to end and stayed focused the whole time. They openly
participated and understood the content immediately. They were very excited about the
coinciding activities. The illustrated stages on the butterfly wings were a huge hit! Each child
was so dedicated and concentrated on making their butterfly, that there were hardly any
behavioral issues, which is a tremendous feat for this troublesome class. I was short on time and
did not get to observe the completion of the life cycle worksheet, but the coordinating teacher did
make sure that this was done. Even though I had the students still do this activity, I think the
lesson would have been sufficient without it. I used this worksheet as my independent practice,
but I do believe it was a bit repetitive of the illustrative stages. In retrospect, a short quiz
probably would have been the best was to assess the knowledge acquisition of the students. For
future use of this lesson, I would definitely keep the butterfly illustrations, but perhaps divert
from the worksheet. However, the combination of the butterfly illustrations and the worksheet
provided a beautiful showcase of student work in the hallway! I even had another teacher from
the team ask me specifically for my lesson and the link to my prezi. By far, this was one of the
best lessons that I have done and will save it for my future use as a teacher.