A monarch butterfly has four stages in it's life cycle. Unlike people monarchs do not simply grow they also change form completely as they go from one stage to the next in their life.

Monarchs start out as eggs. The butterflies lay their eggs on the bottom of milkweed plants to help hide them from predators. Monarchs lay hundreds of tiny eggs.

Once the egg hatches the monarch begins the second stage in it's life cycle, the larva stage. In this stage the monarch is a caterpillar. When a caterpillar hatches the first thing it eats is it's egg. Then it will munch on milkweed leaves. As it eats it grows and grows. As the caterpillar gets bigger it will molt which means it will shed it's skin until it is fully grown.