1-2-3 Come Do Some Leap Day Activities With Me  

2016 is a leap year, and it falls on a Monday.  With that in mind, I designed some quick, easy & fun activities that your kiddos can do on leap day and still practice standards.

First up is a set of 60, Leap Day Number Puzzles, which sequence numbers from 1-10, count backwards from 10 to 1, as well as skip count by 2s, 3s, 5s & 10s.

There are over 60 in all. Some are vertical, while others are horizontal. 

Print, laminate & trim the full color options and use as an independent math center.  Use the black & white ones, so that students can color & cut up their own puzzle.

For an interesting “craftivity” have students glue their puzzle to a sheet of construction paper.

Remind them to leave a little bit of a gap between each numbered strip, to create an especially cool mosaic effect. Completed projects make a cute bulletin board.

To mix math with literacy, have students choose either the horizontal or vertical writing prompt puzzle.

Children complete the “If I could do anything on leap day I would...” writing prompt, then cut and glue their “poster prompt” to a sheet of construction paper, creating the mosaic picture mentioned above.

Besides the full-size puzzles, I’ve also designed a set of “Happy Leap Day!” 4-on-a-page mini puzzles, as an inexpensive little surprise that you can give your students.

There are two picture options, plus one is horizontal, the other vertical.

Choose the number 1-10 puzzle for PK kiddos and use the skip counting by 10s to 100 for K-1st. 

Print, trim, and put in a Snack Baggie, then attach one of 3 “Happy Leap Day” header options.

The “headers” can also double as a bookmark.  

Speaking of bookmarks, I've also designed some that are a super-fun math “craftivity”.

The Leap Year Bookmark Mathtivity, a “growing” packet. So that you can continue to use it each leap year, I’ve included center bookmarks through the year 2028, and will continue to up-date.

Run off the middle bookmark section on a variety of colors of construction paper.  There are full-color as well as black and white "color me" picture options for the top and/or bottom of the bookmarks as well.

Have students analyze the list of leap year dates that are listed in that middle section. Do they see a mathematical pattern?

Using that data, ask them to venture a guess as to when they think the next leap year will be.

I’ve included necessary background information for you to use, as well as an answer key through the year 2400, should you want to do more math extensions and data analysis.     

I designed The "Leapin' To 29" money-math game specifically for leap day, but you can really use it any other time as well.

The object of the game is to be the first one to spin all of the coins needed in your column, that will add up to 29.  The strategy comes in with the column children choose.

Students can play with a partner or in small groups of 3-5.  For more math practice, and a fun data analysis activity, I've included 2 graphing options. 

Another game that you can play on leap day is "Leapin' Lizards!", which reinforces telling time to the hour & half hour with Lizzy Lizard.  As with the game above, this is also suitable anytime, but especially cute for leap day.

The packet includes a large and small set of 48-traceable time cards + a blank set to make additional times, or program with whatever.

I’ve also included covers and blank clocks if you’d like to make an Itty Bitty Time-Telling booklet.

Children can play as a math center activity with a partner, or you can use this as a whole-group game in small groups of 3-5. 
The cards are also suitable for Memory Match and “I Have; Who Has?” Games.

There’s a blank-clock worksheet that you can use for an individual or whole-group assessment. Simply fill in the template with whatever times you want to practice/evaluate.

You can also use the lizard clock like a flashcard. As a whole group game, show a time and have children raise their hand to tell you what time you’ve displayed.  The clock also words as a one-on-one, manipulative assessment tool. 

Today's featured FREEBIE also has a leap year theme.  It's a set of 5 Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme Posters that have to do with leaping and jumping. 

As a quick, easy & fun way to get the "wiggles" out, read them to your kiddos and have them leap and jump when that happens in the rhyme. 

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by. We are having a flurry of winter weather right now, and it's snowing to beat the band outside my window.

So much for spring coming early! You just can't depend on those groundhog prognosticators!

"The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it." ~Patrick Young

Looking for one more thing to plug in for Leap Day, how ‘bout an easy reader booklet that reviews the 6-basic shapes?

Your students will enjoy Who Leaped Away With The Shapes Today?

They read the repetitive sentence, trace and then write the shape word, as well as trace the shape around the critter that absconded with that shape.

Children who finish early can go back and color the characters.

When everyone has completed their booklet, read it as a whole-group activity to review concepts of print.

Print off your school photo, cut it in an oval and glue it to the last page. Run off copies for your students.

Before you give them the solution to the “mystery page”, graph their guesses as to what animal they think stole all of the shapes on Leap Day.

I’ve also included another graphing extension to see which Leapin’ animal is their favorite.

For more shape as well as color identification, run off my large animal shapes on a variety of colored construction paper.

To practice letter sounds, I’ve written an alliterative sentence on each shape.

Leave the character’s name as well as the shape out and have the students fill it in as you hold up the card and read the sentence.

Whenever I’m dealing with colors I have my students tell me the names in English as well as Spanish.

You can make an extra set and glue them to  8x10 pieces of tag board of a file folder.

Sprinkle the shapes on the floor and call on students to leap and hop to a specific one.

Choose the 4 most difficult ones for your students and hang one in each corner of the classroom.  Play 4-Corners.

Choose an “It”.  Cover its eyes and count backwards from 10-0.  Everyone else has to leap and hop to a corner before you get to 0.

Anyone not in a corner and standing frozen is out and joins you and “It” in the middle of the carpet.“It” (eyes still covered) calls out a shape.  Everyone in the corner with that shape is out.

Play continues ‘til only one child is left.  My Y5’s absolutely LOVE this game and the constant repetition of the shapes, helps them with identification.

Play “Mystery Shape”. Glue the shapes to old file folders and trim so they are that shape.

Toss them in a large paper grocery bag.  Students sit in a circle.

Pass the bag to the first child; without peeking they pick up a shape and keeping it in the bag they feel around it with one hand and try and guess which shape it is.

After 30 seconds they pull it out to see if they are correct and identify the shape that they are holding.

These shapes will also help your students get the wiggles out.

Add some music and movement to your Leap Day by gathering your little ones in a circle.

Pass out the shapes to 6 children and choose a 7^th to play the teacher.

Sing The Kids And Their Shapes to the tune of Farmer In The Dell.

When their part in the song is sung, the child with that animal shape goes into the middle of the circle and jumps and leaps around.

The song ends with the child-teacher standing alone, because she took all the shapes, finally everyone falls down!

You might know from past articles that I’m crazy over recycling and plan at least one project a month involving recycled items.

I also love melting broken crayons in muffin tins or using candy molds.  Leap Day was the perfect day to make a variety of colored frogs so that my students could make a cool Leap Day Shape Collage to go with the above booklet.

Make just enough for a center, or one for each child.

I also recycled old file folders to cut into the shape templates.  Students arranged them on the “Who Leaped Away With The Shapes Today” paper  (included with booklet) and then colored around the edges.

Click on the link to view/download Who Leaped Away Leap Day SHAPE booklet.

This ending is similar to my booklet There Was An Old Lady that reviews the months and would be a nice “go along” to read with this booklet.  Children enjoy “feeding” her the monthly-words and their matching pictures.

Click on the link to view/download this extra Leap Day booklet.

Another companion booklet that my Y5’s really enjoy is Who Took The Cookies From The Classroom Cookie Jar? The cookie manipulatives have letters, numbers as well as shapes on them.

As with the above story, I’ve designed manipulatives to pass out to your students who fill the classroom cookie jar with them, when that part of the story is read.

Click on the link to view/download this fun booklet, great for Leap Day

Want more animal shapes?

Since Teaching With Angry Birds was such a huge hit, I just finished Angry Bird Shapes.

Save them for another day, or toss them into the Leap Day craziness.

Click on the link to view/download Angry Bird Shapes.

Whatever you and yours are leaping into on Leap Day I hope it’s simply grand!  

Leap Day Coin Game: Let's Leap To 29

To coincide with their studies of Lincoln and Washington, many teachers start their intense study of coins in February,  so I thought it would be fun to make up a game for Leap Day, using pennies, nickels, dimes and a quarter, to help review those coins.

I find that the more times you can immerse children in hands-on activities, that involve the concepts you’re trying to teach them, the better chance you have of having the perverbial lightbulb go on, as they latch on to something that will help them differenciate the coins.

What better way to do that than by playing a game!

Since Leap Day falls on the 29^th and I’m trying to get that fact stuck into my students’ heads, as well as the fact that this is an extra day, since February usually has only 28 days, I made the game Leap To .29 Cents.

I also want students to try and figure out what their best chances are of reaching 29 the quickest will be, depending on the column of coins they choose.

A discussion about strategy can follow of whether column choice matters and why.

I’ve also provided a graph to see which column won the game the most to see if it really did make a difference.

Students choose a partner and take turns spinning the coin spinner.

Whatever coin their paperclip lands on they color in that coin.

If they have already colored in those coins it becomes their partner’s turn.

Play continues ‘til the timer rings.

If someone has not reached 29, the student who is closest to 29 is the winner.

I hope this gives you another idea for your bag of tricks for Leap Day.

Click on the link to view/download Leap Day Coin Game, Leapin’ to 29.

Scroll down for my post from yesterday and the Leap Day Leapin’ Animals booklet and be sure and pop back tomorrow for more Leap Day activities.