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 do sweet, brightly coloured berries and mangoes use animals to disperse their seeds: animals eat the fleshy fruit and drop or pass the hard, undigested seeds in a new location, or animals plant them with spades?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
2. How does a newly hatched tadpole breathe while living underwater before it grows lungs: through gills, or through a snorkel?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
3. In a bird-pollinated or insect-pollinated flower, why are the petals often brightly coloured and scented with sweet nectar: to attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and sunbirds, or to scare away the Sun?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
4. What do we call the complete biological change in body form that a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly, or a tadpole to become a frog: metamorphosis or hibernation?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
5. How do burdock burrs with tiny hooks on their seed coats disperse: they hook onto the fur of passing animals or people’s clothes and are carried to new places, or they float into space?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
6. Inside a bird’s egg, what part provides the main store of nutrient-rich food for the growing embryo: the yolk (and albumen) or the outer shell?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
7. 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
8. What three conditions do almost all seeds need in order to germinate successfully: water, oxygen and a suitable temperature (warmth), or bright electric light and salt?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
9. 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
10. 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
11. What is the correct four-stage life cycle of a butterfly in order: Egg → Caterpillar (larva) → Chrysalis (pupa) → Adult butterfly, or Adult → Egg → Caterpillar → Pupa?
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 46 · 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 do sweet, brightly coloured berries and mangoes use animals to disperse their seeds: animals eat the fleshy fruit and drop or pass the hard, undigested seeds in a new location, or animals plant them with spades?
Animals eat the fleshy fruit and drop or pass the hard, undigested seeds in a new location
Fleshy fruits reward fruit-eating birds and mammals, which transport the seeds away.
2. 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.
3. In a bird-pollinated or insect-pollinated flower, why are the petals often brightly coloured and scented with sweet nectar: to attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and sunbirds, or to scare away the Sun?
To attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and sunbirds
As pollinators feed on nectar, pollen brushes onto their bodies and is carried to the next flower.
4. What do we call the complete biological change in body form that a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly, or a tadpole to become a frog: metamorphosis or hibernation?
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a dramatic transformation in body structure from larva to adult.
5. How do burdock burrs with tiny hooks on their seed coats disperse: they hook onto the fur of passing animals or people’s clothes and are carried to new places, or they float into space?
They hook onto the fur of passing animals or people’s clothes and are carried to new places
Hooked burrs inspired the invention of hook-and-loop fasteners (Velcro).
6. Inside a bird’s egg, what part provides the main store of nutrient-rich food for the growing embryo: the yolk (and albumen) or the outer shell?
The yolk (and albumen)
The egg yolk is packed with fats, proteins and vitamins that nourish the developing chick.
7. 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.
8. What three conditions do almost all seeds need in order to germinate successfully: water, oxygen and a suitable temperature (warmth), or bright electric light and salt?
Water, oxygen and a suitable temperature (warmth)
Seeds use stored food reserves to germinate underground and do not need light until their first leaves emerge for photosynthesis.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. What is the correct four-stage life cycle of a butterfly in order: Egg → Caterpillar (larva) → Chrysalis (pupa) → Adult butterfly, or Adult → Egg → Caterpillar → Pupa?
A butterfly undergoes complete metamorphosis through four distinct stages.
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 46 · Age guidance, not curriculum certification
Worksheet StudioPractice pack · Ages 4-6
Animal & plant life cycles
Take your time. Show your thinking.
1. How do sweet, brightly coloured berries and mangoes use animals to disperse their seeds: animals eat the fleshy fruit and drop or pass the hard, undigested seeds in a new location, or animals plant them with spades?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
2. How does a newly hatched tadpole breathe while living underwater before it grows lungs: through gills, or through a snorkel?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
3. In a bird-pollinated or insect-pollinated flower, why are the petals often brightly coloured and scented with sweet nectar: to attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and sunbirds, or to scare away the Sun?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
4. What do we call the complete biological change in body form that a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly, or a tadpole to become a frog: metamorphosis or hibernation?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
5. How do burdock burrs with tiny hooks on their seed coats disperse: they hook onto the fur of passing animals or people’s clothes and are carried to new places, or they float into space?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
6. Inside a bird’s egg, what part provides the main store of nutrient-rich food for the growing embryo: the yolk (and albumen) or the outer shell?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
7. 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
8. What three conditions do almost all seeds need in order to germinate successfully: water, oxygen and a suitable temperature (warmth), or bright electric light and salt?
Egg → Larva → Pupa → Adult
9. 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
10. 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
11. What is the correct four-stage life cycle of a butterfly in order: Egg → Caterpillar (larva) → Chrysalis (pupa) → Adult butterfly, or Adult → Egg → Caterpillar → Pupa?
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 46 · Age guidance, not curriculum certification
Worksheet StudioAnswer key · Ages 4-6
Animal & plant life cycles
Answers and reasoning. Review before teaching.
1. How do sweet, brightly coloured berries and mangoes use animals to disperse their seeds: animals eat the fleshy fruit and drop or pass the hard, undigested seeds in a new location, or animals plant them with spades?
Animals eat the fleshy fruit and drop or pass the hard, undigested seeds in a new location
Fleshy fruits reward fruit-eating birds and mammals, which transport the seeds away.
2. 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.
3. In a bird-pollinated or insect-pollinated flower, why are the petals often brightly coloured and scented with sweet nectar: to attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and sunbirds, or to scare away the Sun?
To attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and sunbirds
As pollinators feed on nectar, pollen brushes onto their bodies and is carried to the next flower.
4. What do we call the complete biological change in body form that a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly, or a tadpole to become a frog: metamorphosis or hibernation?
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a dramatic transformation in body structure from larva to adult.
5. How do burdock burrs with tiny hooks on their seed coats disperse: they hook onto the fur of passing animals or people’s clothes and are carried to new places, or they float into space?
They hook onto the fur of passing animals or people’s clothes and are carried to new places
Hooked burrs inspired the invention of hook-and-loop fasteners (Velcro).
6. Inside a bird’s egg, what part provides the main store of nutrient-rich food for the growing embryo: the yolk (and albumen) or the outer shell?
The yolk (and albumen)
The egg yolk is packed with fats, proteins and vitamins that nourish the developing chick.
7. 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.
8. What three conditions do almost all seeds need in order to germinate successfully: water, oxygen and a suitable temperature (warmth), or bright electric light and salt?
Water, oxygen and a suitable temperature (warmth)
Seeds use stored food reserves to germinate underground and do not need light until their first leaves emerge for photosynthesis.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. What is the correct four-stage life cycle of a butterfly in order: Egg → Caterpillar (larva) → Chrysalis (pupa) → Adult butterfly, or Adult → Egg → Caterpillar → Pupa?
A butterfly undergoes complete metamorphosis through four distinct stages.
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 46 · Age guidance, not curriculum certification