---
title: "Drawing Life Cycle Diagrams"
description: "Draw and interpret life cycle diagrams for flowering plants, insects (complete and incomplete metamorphosis), birds, and mammals — labelling stages, describing transitions, and comparing cycles across"
canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/drawing-life-cycle-diagrams-mt_7EqhgErJyU
source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/drawing-life-cycle-diagrams-mt_7EqhgErJyU.md
retrieved: 2026-10-19
---

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# Drawing Life Cycle Diagrams

Draw and interpret life cycle diagrams for flowering plants, insects (complete and incomplete metamorphosis), birds, and mammals — labelling stages, describing transitions, and comparing cycles across species

Subject: Science · Area: Organisms & Life Processes · Ages 7 to 8
Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/drawing-life-cycle-diagrams-mt_7EqhgErJyU

## Ready when they can

- Draw a labelled life cycle diagram for a flowering plant including seed, seedling, mature plant, and flower/fruit
- Compare a butterfly life cycle (complete metamorphosis) with a grasshopper life cycle (incomplete metamorphosis) using diagrams
- Label a blank life cycle diagram for a given organism correctly, including transitions between stages

## Lesson: Drawing Life Cycle Diagrams

A life cycle diagram is a picture that shows how a living thing grows and changes over its whole life. Most life cycles are drawn as a circle with arrows, because when a living thing grows up, it often makes new babies, and the cycle starts again.

*(drawing: A flowering plant's life cycle in order: a seed grows into a seedling, then a full plant, then a flower that makes new seeds.)*

**Example.** A butterfly's life cycle has four very different-looking stages. It hatches from an egg into a caterpillar, which eats and grows. The caterpillar then forms a chrysalis, where its whole body changes shape inside. Finally, a butterfly comes out. This big body change is called complete metamorphosis.

A grasshopper's life cycle is different. It hatches from an egg into a nymph, which already looks like a tiny wingless grasshopper. The nymph molts its skin and slowly grows wings until it becomes an adult. There is no chrysalis stage at all. This is called incomplete metamorphosis.

**Tip.** When you draw a life cycle diagram, use arrows to show which stage comes next. The last arrow usually loops back to the first stage, because a new generation begins the cycle again.

**Recap.** A life cycle diagram uses labelled stages and arrows to show how a living thing grows, changes, and starts the cycle again.

## Practice

8 questions on this page, each with its working shown.

## Needs first

- [Animal Life Stages](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/animal-life-stages-mt_oR6dwRj2Ll)
- [Sorting into categories](https://lightmysky.com/learn/mathematics/sorting-into-categories-mt_xppl18avyY)

## Opens up

- [Life Cycles of Organisms](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/life-cycles-of-organisms-mt_4IVWRAZoNC)