Trace metamorphosis in butterflies and frogs, egg development, pollination, seed dispersal and germination. Review suitability for your learners before teaching.
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Worksheet StudioPractice pack · Ages 4-6
Animal & plant life cycles
Take your time. Show your thinking.
1. How does a newly hatched tadpole breathe while living underwater before it grows lungs: through gills, or through a snorkel?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
2. After pollen lands on the stigma and travels down to join with an ovule inside the flower’s ovary, what is this fusion of male and female cells called: fertilisation or transpiration?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
3. After a flower is pollinated and fertilised, which part of the flower swells and ripens into a fruit (such as a mango, tomato or apple) protecting the seeds inside: the ovary or the stem?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
4. What do we call an animal (such as a dragonfly or grasshopper) whose young (nymph) looks like a small wingless version of the adult and sheds its skin (moults) several times without a pupa stage: incomplete metamorphosis or complete metamorphosis?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
5. Where do female sea turtles return to lay their clutches of leathery eggs: in a nest dug in the warm sand of a beach above the high-tide line, or floating on the waves?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
6. How do mammals (such as humans, dolphins, cats and whales) feed their newborn young: the mother produces milk from mammary glands, or newborn mammals photosynthesis?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
7. In the life cycle of a butterfly, what is the resting casing inside which the caterpillar transforms into a winged adult: the chrysalis (pupa) or the seed?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
8. Why do plants scatter (disperse) their seeds away from the parent plant: so the young seedlings do not have to compete with the parent plant for light, water and soil minerals, or to keep the seeds cold?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
9. How is a coconut fruit adapted to be dispersed between islands by ocean currents: it has a thick, fibrous, air-filled husk that makes it buoyant (float) and waterproof in seawater, or it has wings?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
10. In a flowering plant’s life cycle, what is the process called when a seed absorbs water, swells and begins to sprout a root and shoot: germination or pollination?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
11. What is the correct life cycle of a frog (an amphibian) in order: Frogspawn (eggs) → Tadpole → Froglet (with legs) → Adult frog, or Tadpole → Egg → Adult frog?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
12. In the life cycle of a butterfly, what is the feeding stage that hatches from the egg and eats leaves to grow rapidly: the caterpillar (larva) or the pupa?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
12 questions · Seed 45 · Age guidance, not curriculum certification
View the answer key
Worksheet StudioAnswer key · Ages 4-6
Animal & plant life cycles
Answers and reasoning. Review before teaching.
1. How does a newly hatched tadpole breathe while living underwater before it grows lungs: through gills, or through a snorkel?
Through gills
Tadpoles use gills to absorb dissolved oxygen from water; as they metamorphose into frogs, they develop lungs and breathe through moist skin.
2. After pollen lands on the stigma and travels down to join with an ovule inside the flower’s ovary, what is this fusion of male and female cells called: fertilisation or transpiration?
Fertilisation
After fertilisation, the ovule develops into a seed and the surrounding ovary swells into a fruit.
3. After a flower is pollinated and fertilised, which part of the flower swells and ripens into a fruit (such as a mango, tomato or apple) protecting the seeds inside: the ovary or the stem?
The ovary
In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary of a flowering plant containing the seeds.
4. What do we call an animal (such as a dragonfly or grasshopper) whose young (nymph) looks like a small wingless version of the adult and sheds its skin (moults) several times without a pupa stage: incomplete metamorphosis or complete metamorphosis?
Incomplete metamorphosis
Incomplete metamorphosis has three stages: Egg → Nymph → Adult (no pupa stage).
5. Where do female sea turtles return to lay their clutches of leathery eggs: in a nest dug in the warm sand of a beach above the high-tide line, or floating on the waves?
In a nest dug in the warm sand of a beach above the high-tide line
Female sea turtles crawl ashore at night to bury their eggs in sandy beaches; hatchlings then scramble to the sea.
6. How do mammals (such as humans, dolphins, cats and whales) feed their newborn young: the mother produces milk from mammary glands, or newborn mammals photosynthesis?
The mother produces milk from mammary glands
All mammals nourish their young with nutrient-rich milk.
7. In the life cycle of a butterfly, what is the resting casing inside which the caterpillar transforms into a winged adult: the chrysalis (pupa) or the seed?
Chrysalis (pupa)
Inside the chrysalis (pupa), tissues reorganise into the adult butterfly.
8. Why do plants scatter (disperse) their seeds away from the parent plant: so the young seedlings do not have to compete with the parent plant for light, water and soil minerals, or to keep the seeds cold?
So the young seedlings do not have to compete with the parent plant for light, water and soil minerals
Seed dispersal reduces overcrowding and helps plants colonise new habitats.
9. How is a coconut fruit adapted to be dispersed between islands by ocean currents: it has a thick, fibrous, air-filled husk that makes it buoyant (float) and waterproof in seawater, or it has wings?
It has a thick, fibrous, air-filled husk that makes it buoyant (float) and waterproof in seawater
Coconuts can float across the sea for weeks and still germinate when washed onto a sandy beach.
10. In a flowering plant’s life cycle, what is the process called when a seed absorbs water, swells and begins to sprout a root and shoot: germination or pollination?
Germination
Germination is the sprouting of a seed into a seedling.
11. What is the correct life cycle of a frog (an amphibian) in order: Frogspawn (eggs) → Tadpole → Froglet (with legs) → Adult frog, or Tadpole → Egg → Adult frog?
Frogs lay jelly-coated eggs in water that hatch into gill-breathing tadpoles before growing legs and lungs.
12. In the life cycle of a butterfly, what is the feeding stage that hatches from the egg and eats leaves to grow rapidly: the caterpillar (larva) or the pupa?
Caterpillar (larva)
The caterpillar is the larval stage specialised for feeding and growth.
12 questions · Seed 45 · Age guidance, not curriculum certification
Worksheet StudioPractice pack · Ages 4-6
Animal & plant life cycles
Take your time. Show your thinking.
1. How does a newly hatched tadpole breathe while living underwater before it grows lungs: through gills, or through a snorkel?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
2. After pollen lands on the stigma and travels down to join with an ovule inside the flower’s ovary, what is this fusion of male and female cells called: fertilisation or transpiration?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
3. After a flower is pollinated and fertilised, which part of the flower swells and ripens into a fruit (such as a mango, tomato or apple) protecting the seeds inside: the ovary or the stem?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
4. What do we call an animal (such as a dragonfly or grasshopper) whose young (nymph) looks like a small wingless version of the adult and sheds its skin (moults) several times without a pupa stage: incomplete metamorphosis or complete metamorphosis?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
5. Where do female sea turtles return to lay their clutches of leathery eggs: in a nest dug in the warm sand of a beach above the high-tide line, or floating on the waves?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
6. How do mammals (such as humans, dolphins, cats and whales) feed their newborn young: the mother produces milk from mammary glands, or newborn mammals photosynthesis?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
7. In the life cycle of a butterfly, what is the resting casing inside which the caterpillar transforms into a winged adult: the chrysalis (pupa) or the seed?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
8. Why do plants scatter (disperse) their seeds away from the parent plant: so the young seedlings do not have to compete with the parent plant for light, water and soil minerals, or to keep the seeds cold?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
9. How is a coconut fruit adapted to be dispersed between islands by ocean currents: it has a thick, fibrous, air-filled husk that makes it buoyant (float) and waterproof in seawater, or it has wings?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
10. In a flowering plant’s life cycle, what is the process called when a seed absorbs water, swells and begins to sprout a root and shoot: germination or pollination?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
11. What is the correct life cycle of a frog (an amphibian) in order: Frogspawn (eggs) → Tadpole → Froglet (with legs) → Adult frog, or Tadpole → Egg → Adult frog?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
12. In the life cycle of a butterfly, what is the feeding stage that hatches from the egg and eats leaves to grow rapidly: the caterpillar (larva) or the pupa?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
12 questions · Seed 45 · Age guidance, not curriculum certification
Worksheet StudioAnswer key · Ages 4-6
Animal & plant life cycles
Answers and reasoning. Review before teaching.
1. How does a newly hatched tadpole breathe while living underwater before it grows lungs: through gills, or through a snorkel?
Through gills
Tadpoles use gills to absorb dissolved oxygen from water; as they metamorphose into frogs, they develop lungs and breathe through moist skin.
2. After pollen lands on the stigma and travels down to join with an ovule inside the flower’s ovary, what is this fusion of male and female cells called: fertilisation or transpiration?
Fertilisation
After fertilisation, the ovule develops into a seed and the surrounding ovary swells into a fruit.
3. After a flower is pollinated and fertilised, which part of the flower swells and ripens into a fruit (such as a mango, tomato or apple) protecting the seeds inside: the ovary or the stem?
The ovary
In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary of a flowering plant containing the seeds.
4. What do we call an animal (such as a dragonfly or grasshopper) whose young (nymph) looks like a small wingless version of the adult and sheds its skin (moults) several times without a pupa stage: incomplete metamorphosis or complete metamorphosis?
Incomplete metamorphosis
Incomplete metamorphosis has three stages: Egg → Nymph → Adult (no pupa stage).
5. Where do female sea turtles return to lay their clutches of leathery eggs: in a nest dug in the warm sand of a beach above the high-tide line, or floating on the waves?
In a nest dug in the warm sand of a beach above the high-tide line
Female sea turtles crawl ashore at night to bury their eggs in sandy beaches; hatchlings then scramble to the sea.
6. How do mammals (such as humans, dolphins, cats and whales) feed their newborn young: the mother produces milk from mammary glands, or newborn mammals photosynthesis?
The mother produces milk from mammary glands
All mammals nourish their young with nutrient-rich milk.
7. In the life cycle of a butterfly, what is the resting casing inside which the caterpillar transforms into a winged adult: the chrysalis (pupa) or the seed?
Chrysalis (pupa)
Inside the chrysalis (pupa), tissues reorganise into the adult butterfly.
8. Why do plants scatter (disperse) their seeds away from the parent plant: so the young seedlings do not have to compete with the parent plant for light, water and soil minerals, or to keep the seeds cold?
So the young seedlings do not have to compete with the parent plant for light, water and soil minerals
Seed dispersal reduces overcrowding and helps plants colonise new habitats.
9. How is a coconut fruit adapted to be dispersed between islands by ocean currents: it has a thick, fibrous, air-filled husk that makes it buoyant (float) and waterproof in seawater, or it has wings?
It has a thick, fibrous, air-filled husk that makes it buoyant (float) and waterproof in seawater
Coconuts can float across the sea for weeks and still germinate when washed onto a sandy beach.
10. In a flowering plant’s life cycle, what is the process called when a seed absorbs water, swells and begins to sprout a root and shoot: germination or pollination?
Germination
Germination is the sprouting of a seed into a seedling.
11. What is the correct life cycle of a frog (an amphibian) in order: Frogspawn (eggs) → Tadpole → Froglet (with legs) → Adult frog, or Tadpole → Egg → Adult frog?
Frogs lay jelly-coated eggs in water that hatch into gill-breathing tadpoles before growing legs and lungs.
12. In the life cycle of a butterfly, what is the feeding stage that hatches from the egg and eats leaves to grow rapidly: the caterpillar (larva) or the pupa?
Caterpillar (larva)
The caterpillar is the larval stage specialised for feeding and growth.
12 questions · Seed 45 · Age guidance, not curriculum certification