A life cycle is how a living thing grows and changes into an adult.
A butterfly has 4 stages in its life cycle.
A butterfly changes a lot as it grows.
Let's look at each stage of the life cycle of a butterfly.

First, a butterfly finds a leaf to lay her eggs on. These eggs are very small, about the size of the point on your pencil. They are hard to see, so look closely.
The adult butterfly will lay her eggs on the leaf and leave. The baby caterpillars will be on their own when they hatch.

A few days after they are laid, the eggs will begin to hatch.
The caterpillars are very small and super hungry.
They start by eating their egg shell. Next, they start eating the leaf they were laid on, and then other leaves on the plant. The caterpillars keep eating. They eat so much that their skin becomes tight. Their skin doesn't grow with them. Their skin will split and they will shed the old skin. A new skin is underneath their old skin. They shed their skin 5 times. After the fifth time, the caterpillar is ready to move unto the next stage.

Now, the caterpillar is ready for the third stage. The caterpillar will find a safe space to hang. It will make an anchor on the leaf or stem. Then it will hang upside down and look like a J. When it's ready. it's skin will split one last time to reveal a chrysalis. The chrysalis will harden and the catapillar inside will go through something called metamorphosis. It is during metamorphosis that the catapillar will transform into a butterfly.

After a few days the butterfly is ready to come out. The butterfly will break through the chrysalis. When it comes out its wings are too wet to fly. It will hang on the leaf or stem until its wings are dry. Once the wings are dry, the butterfly will fly off to find a flower and drink some nectar. Next, the butterfly will find a leaf to lay some eggs on, and the cycle will start all over again.