Life Cycle Graphic Organizer – Blank Stages With Arrows

How it works

This life cycle graphic organizer has a box for each stage, with room to draw it and lines to say what happens. The opening sheet names no animal, so it fits whichever living thing the class is studying.

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How many stages to print

Butterflies, and most frogs, go through four named stages, so the four-box sheet is the usual choice. Insects such as grasshoppers and dragonflies have three: egg, nymph and adult, with no pupa. Print five or six boxes when a book splits a stage in two.

What makes it a cycle

A life cycle ends with an adult that reproduces, and the same stages then begin again in its young. The last box on the opening sheet asks how the cycle starts again, which is the step a plain list of stages leaves out.

A chrysalis is the pupa of a butterfly. A cocoon is a silk covering, and most butterfly caterpillars do not spin one.
Tadpoles breathe with gills and adult frogs with lungs, a change worth drawing in the froglet box.

Questions and answers

What is a life cycle?

A life cycle is the series of stages a living thing passes through, from the start of its life to an adult that reproduces. The same stages then repeat in the next generation.

What are the 4 stages of a butterfly life cycle?

Egg, larva, pupa and adult. The larva is the caterpillar and the pupa is the chrysalis. The adult lays eggs on a plant, and the cycle begins again.

What are the stages of a frog life cycle?

Egg, tadpole, froglet and adult frog. Most frogs lay their eggs in water, and the eggs hatch into tadpoles with tails and gills. During metamorphosis lungs develop and the gills disappear.

What are the stages of a plant life cycle?

For a flowering plant: a seed sprouts and grows into a seedling, then into an adult plant that flowers. After pollination the ovary of the flower becomes a fruit with new seeds inside, and a planted seed starts the cycle again.

All 13 organizers

Blank cycles 6

Five stage cycle Five boxes with arrows and lines to write on, for a cycle with a stage more.
Four stages on primary lines The four boxes with arrows and handwriting lines with a dotted midline in place of the drawing space.
Four stages to draw, with a line for a word Four open boxes two to a row, each with one line under the drawing for the name of the stage. For kindergarten and 1st grade.
Life cycle graphic organizer: four stages with arrows Four boxes down the page joined by arrows, each with room to draw a stage over lines to write what happens. The last box asks how the cycle starts again.
Six stage cycle Six boxes with arrows and lines to write on, the longest cycle that fits a page.
Three stage cycle Three larger boxes with arrows, for an animal that goes from egg to young to adult.

Show all 13 organizers (7 more)

Plant, butterfly, frog 5

Butterfly life cycle: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly The four stages of a butterfly printed in order, with room to draw each and write what happens.
Flowering plant life cycle: from seed to seed Four stages of a flowering plant printed in order, from a seed to the fruit that holds the next seeds.
Frog life cycle: egg, tadpole, froglet, adult frog The four stages of a frog printed in order, with room to draw each and write what happens.
Sorting chart: four stages or three Two open columns for sorting insects: those with an egg, a larva, a pupa and an adult, and those with an egg, a nymph and an adult.
Two life cycles side by side Write a living thing at the top of each column, then compare the two cycles a row at a time.

Filled-in samples 2

Sample butterfly life cycle, filled in The four butterfly boxes with what happens written in and the drawings left to do.
Sample frog life cycle, filled in The four frog boxes with what happens written in and the drawings left to do.

How this list was compiled: Our own layouts and wording; no publisher's organizer is copied. The stages of the butterfly were checked against the Wikipedia article Butterfly and the USDA Forest Service page Monarch Butterfly Biology, those of the frog against the Wikipedia article Frog and the NASA eClips glossary, those of the flowering plant against a US Botanic Garden lesson plan and the Wikipedia articles Seedling and Fruit, and the three stage cycle against the Wikipedia article Hemimetabolism, all read October 14, 2026. Licence: own work