The purpose of this unit is to for the students to acquire general knowledge about different cycles in their natural world.  The following 6 lessons will deal specifically with the lifecycle of the butterfly.  The students will learn the anatomy of the butterfly, physical characteristics of the butterfly, and the proper terminology and vocabulary in regards to the butterfly.  They will also experience, first hand, the metamorphosis of the caterpillar to a butterfly through the raising of live caterpillar larvae.  The metamorphosis process takes about 3 weeks, throughout which the students will be keeping a butterfly observation journal.  Each day the students will make a journal entry based on the observation of their individual larvae.  Through this unit, the students will learn that a cycle is a continuous  flow of changes that end in the same conclusion before repeating itself again.   They will be exposed to a variety of specific cycles that occur in the natural world around them.