Want to celebrate February 29 with some Leap Day or Leap Year Math? I’ve got you covered with the best FREE resources from all over the Internet.
Elementary Leap Day Math
Free Leap Day “make a time capsule” activity (available for grades 2-3 or 4-5) from Not So Wimpy Teacher includes:
- Estimation
- Place value
- Money
- Addition & subtraction
- Measurement
- Line plots
- Fractions (grades 4-5 set only)
If you teach grades K-1, Tejeda’s Tots has a great lesson incorporating math and science to teach about leap year. While she does sell some of the resources mentioned in her post, some are free and you can definitely use the ideas without buying anything!
Have a leaping contest and measure each leap! (use tape on the floor with distances marked.) Don’t forget to graph the data or make a line plot. Add to the fun by researching how far different animals can jump and seeing if you can beat them!
(Macaroni Kid has several other ideas for jumping games here)
Make That Number Leap game with a deck of cards
Feed the Frog review game from Kindergarten Smorgasboard. As they suggest:
“To make this game, we used a green bucket from Dollar Tree. We used paper to add eyes, legs, and a tongue. To play, just write skills on paper: math problems, letters, CVC words, etc. Students read the word, solve the equation, etc., and then wad up the paper and “feed the frog” by tossing it into the bucket!”
For younger kids, Printable Leap Day counting number maze from Leapfrog (numbers 1-29)
Leap Year Videos
Leap Year For Kids video from Homeschool Pop on YouTube
Why Do We Have Leap Year? video from Mystery Science
What Is a Leap Year? video from Thinking Captain
Middle School Leap Day Math
NASA has a Leap Day Math Educator Guide for 5th-8th grade available here
Leap Day STEM
Build a catapult, of course! Get directions here
Origami jumping frogs could also be fun! See instructions here.
