Year 5 science · Key Stage 2 · Living things and their habitats

Year 5 life cycles and reproduction in plants and animals

In Year 5 science, children compare the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird, and learn how some plants and animals reproduce. They find out that animals begin life in different ways, that plants can make new plants from seeds or from parts of a parent plant, and that a life cycle is a cycle because adults reproduce and the next generation starts again.

Life cycles and reproduction, explained

A life cycle is the series of stages a living thing goes through from the start of its life to the point where it can have young of its own. Children compare four examples. A mammal, such as a human, a dog or a horse, grows inside its mother and is born alive, and is fed milk by its mother. A few mammals, such as the platypus, lay eggs, but most do not. A bird lays hard-shelled eggs, which are kept warm until a chick hatches. Many chicks, such as young blackbirds, are fed by their parents in the nest until they can fly, while others, such as ducklings, can walk and find food soon after hatching. An amphibian, such as a frog, lays soft jelly-covered eggs in water, and the young that hatch are tadpoles that breathe with gills and later grow legs and lungs. An insect, such as a butterfly, lays eggs that hatch into larvae (caterpillars), which feed and grow, then change inside a pupa (chrysalis) into the adult.

Comparing them is the heart of the topic. Young mammals and birds are broadly like small versions of their parents: they grow and develop, but their body plan does not change completely. In amphibians and many insects the young are very different from the adults and live in a different way. A tadpole swims in water and a frog hops on land; a caterpillar eats leaves and a butterfly drinks nectar. Not every insect goes through a pupa stage. Grasshoppers, for example, hatch as small wingless versions of the adult called nymphs. Children are expected to describe differences, not to learn long lists of stages.

Reproduction is how living things make new ones of their own kind. In most animals, it is sexual reproduction: a male cell and a female cell join (fertilisation) and begin to grow into a new animal, which is born or hatches. Plants also reproduce sexually. Flowers contain the parts that make pollen (male) and the parts that make seeds (female). Pollen is carried to another flower by insects, wind or other means in a process called pollination; fertilisation then makes seeds, which are scattered and may grow into new plants.

Many plants can also reproduce asexually, which means a new plant grows from part of one parent, with no seeds. Strawberry plants send out runners, potatoes grow new plants from tubers, daffodils from bulbs, and gardeners take cuttings of plants such as geraniums. The new plant is a copy of its parent. Schools often let children try this, growing plants from cuttings or bulbs, or watching an animal grow over time, such as chicks hatching in a classroom. The programme of study also suggests finding out about naturalists and animal behaviourists, for example David Attenborough or Jane Goodall, who spent decades observing wild chimpanzees. Which people a school chooses is up to them.

Words your child will hear

Life cycle: The stages a living thing goes through from birth to reproducing and having young.
Reproduction: How living things produce new ones of their own kind.
Metamorphosis: A big change in body shape as a young animal becomes an adult, as in a caterpillar becoming a butterfly.
Larva and pupa: The larva is the feeding stage, such as a caterpillar. The pupa is the stage in which it changes into the adult.
Pollination: Moving pollen from one flower to another so seeds can form.
Sexual and asexual reproduction: Sexual reproduction joins a male and a female cell. Asexual reproduction makes a new plant from one parent.
Fertilisation: When a male cell and a female cell join to start a new living thing, such as a seed or an embryo.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 5, pupils should be taught to:

Describe the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird
Describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: comparing two life cycles

Compare the life cycle of a frog (an amphibian) with the life cycle of a butterfly (an insect). What is the same and what is different?

List the frog’s stages. Eggs (frogspawn) are laid in water. They hatch into tadpoles, which breathe with gills. The tadpole grows back legs, then front legs, and its tail shrinks, becoming a froglet. The froglet grows into an adult frog that breathes with lungs and can live on land.
List the butterfly’s stages. Eggs are laid on a leaf. They hatch into caterpillars, which eat and grow. The caterpillar forms a chrysalis (pupa) and its body is rebuilt inside. An adult butterfly comes out, with wings.
Find what is the same. Both begin as eggs laid by an adult. In both, the young look very different from the adult and live in a different way. Both must feed and grow before they are adult and able to reproduce themselves.
Find what is different. The frog changes gradually: a tadpole slowly gets legs and loses its tail over a few months. The butterfly has a pupa stage, in which the body is rebuilt inside the chrysalis. A tadpole lives in water and a froglet moves onto land. A caterpillar and a butterfly live on land and feed in different ways, one eating leaves and the other drinking nectar.

Both begin as eggs and have young that look different from adults. The frog has a tadpole stage and changes gradually into an air-breathing adult, with no pupa. The butterfly has a caterpillar and a pupa stage before it becomes an adult with wings.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking a tadpole is a type of fish, or that a caterpillar and a butterfly are different animals

Tadpoles live in water and have tails, and caterpillars look nothing like butterflies. Children match animals to how they look and live now.

What helps: Follow one animal through its stages in pictures or a pond. Ask “What is the same animal at every stage?” and emphasise that it is the young of the same animal.

Believing all animals have babies in the same way, or that all mammals give birth to live young

Children know pets and farm animals, which are mammals that give birth. They may not meet the idea that birds, insects and amphibians lay eggs, or the few mammals that do.

What helps: Sort animals into those that lay eggs and those that give birth to live young. Ask for the odd ones out and notice that “mammal” is about feeding young with milk, not about the way it begins life.

Confusing pollination with fertilisation

Both happen in the flower and both involve pollen, so the two are easily run together. Pollination is the moving of pollen, whereas fertilisation is the joining of male and female cells that follows.

What helps: Say it as two steps: first the pollen travels (pollination), then the cells join (fertilisation) and a seed begins to form. A drawing of a flower with arrows helps.

Thinking plants can only grow from seeds

Seeds are the way most children see plants being started. They may not realise that a potato, a bulb or a cutting is also a new plant waiting to grow.

What helps: Put a sprouting potato in a pot or a cutting of a houseplant in water and watch it. Ask “Where did this plant come from?” and “Is it the same as the parent?”.

How to help at home

Start a cutting or a bulb. Ask an adult to snip off one of the baby plantlets that hang from a spider plant, or a short stem of mint or geranium, and stand it in a jar of water on a windowsill until roots grow. Or plant a daffodil bulb in autumn (bulbs are poisonous to eat, so wash hands afterwards). Keep a diary or take a photo every week, and talk about how the new plant came from just one parent.
Draw a life cycle wheel. Choose a creature from the garden or a pond, such as a frog or a ladybird, and draw each stage in a circle with arrows. Ask your child to describe how the young differ from the adult.
Spot young animals. On a walk, look for frogspawn in spring, caterpillars on leaves or nests with chicks, keeping a good distance. Stay with your child near any pond, never touch spawn or nests, and wash hands after any contact with pond water.
From flower to seed. When an adult cuts open an apple, a tomato or a pepper, look for the seeds together. Talk about how each fruit started as a flower that was pollinated, and how the seeds inside could grow into new plants. Try planting a few in a pot of compost.

Builds on

Year 4: Grouping living things and keys

Leads on to

Year 6: Classifying living things

Everything in Year 5 science

Updated 20 October 2026.