Life Cycles of Animals — Answer Key
Part A: Multiple Choice
Circle the best answer for each question.
1. Which animal goes through a stage called a chrysalis?
A) Frog
B) Chicken
C) Fish
D) Butterfly
A butterfly is the only animal listed that forms a chrysalis; the caterpillar wraps itself inside one before becoming an adult butterfly.
2. Why does a tadpole need to live in water?
A) It has wings
B) It needs to stay warm
C) It breathes through gills
D) It eats seeds
Tadpoles do not yet have lungs, so they breathe through gills the way fish do, which is why they must stay in water.
3. Which stage comes right after a chicken hatches?
A) Egg
B) Chick
C) Hen
D) Tadpole
A chicken starts as an egg, and the very next stage right after hatching is the chick, before it grows into a hen or rooster.
4. What is one thing all life cycles have in common?
A) They only happen once
B) They all happen in water
C) They repeat over and over
D) They all take one day
Life cycles repeat over and over because adults lay eggs or have babies that grow up and start the same stages again.
Part B: Fill in the Blank
Write the correct answer on each line.
1. A butterfly uses its tongue to drink nectar.
A butterfly has a long, curled tongue called a proboscis that it uses to sip sweet nectar from flowers.
2. Frog eggs are laid in a group called spawn.
When frogs lay many eggs together in a jelly-like clump in the water, that group is called spawn.
3. A hen keeps a chick warm before it hatches.
A mother hen sits on her eggs to keep them warm so the chicks inside can develop until it is time to hatch.
4. Caterpillars shed their skin as they grow.
A caterpillar's skin cannot stretch much, so it sheds the old skin several times as its body keeps getting bigger.
5. When an adult lays eggs the life cycle starts again.
When the adult lays new eggs, those eggs hatch and go through the same stages, so the cycle starts again from the beginning.