Diane Henderson
Leap Year Lessons: Activities For Leap Day Part 4
Leapin’ Lizards Time Bomb is a fun way to help your students learn how to tell time, and is perfect for any day, but I designed it specifically for a special Leap Day activitiy.
Here’s how to play this Leap Day Game:
Run off the Leapin’ Lizards on white construction paper.
Students color their lizard with markers.
Using a protractor, poke a hole in the middle of the clock.
Cover with a reinforcement hole on the front and back.
This will help prevent tearing.
Insert a brad and a large and small paperclip that will be used as hands for the clock.
The teacher sets a timer.
Decide what digital time cards you want students to work on. I’ve made cards for the hour, half hour, quarter after and quarter to, plus a blank set for you to fill in any other times you want your students to practice.
Students put those clock cards face down.
The Time bomb cards are also mixed in.
Children play in groups of 2-4, taking turns pulling a card from the pile.
Each child has a time card. They circle the time that they pull on their time sheet, and rotate the paperclips on their leapin’ lizard clock to show the correct time.
If they get a time bomb card they lose their turn.
When the timer rings, students count up their circled times, the one who has leaped through time the most is the winner.
If you have enough hole punches, have students use them, as they help strengthen students’ hand muscles and make for a great fine motor skill.
Turn the Time Cards into real old-fashioned time cards by having students “punch” the times that they pull.
When the timer rings, children count up the number of holes that they have next to the times on their time cards.
Give everyone a certificate of praise.
Click on the link to view/download Leapin Lizard Time Bomb Leap Day Game
Follow this activity up with a writing extension and make a class book where students write about what time they “…leap out of bed and what their favorite time of day is and why.
There’s also a graphing extension that goes with the booklet.
There are 3 other class books to the Leap Day writing prompts, which includes my personal Super Hero favorite. This class book also includes a graphing extension which asks which super hero the students think can leap the highest and farthest.
Click on the link to view/download the Leap Day class books.
Be sure and leap on in tomorrow for yet another idea!
Scroll down for the other Leap Day activity articles and links.
Leap Year Lessons: Activities For Leap Day Part 3
One of the first things that come to my mind when I think of leaping is a frog, so I decided to design a few things for Leap Day with a frog theme. Hopefully this will give you some more ideas so that you can share them with your fellow teachers, so that you can each provide a lesson for your "Leap from room-to-room" Leap Day!
Run off duplicate sets of these frog cards and laminate them to make a variety of Leap Day activities.
Play Leapin’ Letters: Print the upper and lowercase letter cards on two different shades of green construction paper to make playing a Memory Match game easier.
Students pick a partner and flip over an uppercase letter and then try to match it to its lowercase partner.
Play continues ‘til all of the cards have been matched. The student with the most pairs wins the game.
Play “I Have…Who Has? Put card-pairs in a basket/bag/box. How ‘bout a kangaroo pouch?
Start with the person who has the letter A who says: “I have uppercase A who has lowercase a? “ Students lay the cards in sequential order on the carpet.
Finish off the game by pointing to the cards and singing the ABC song.
You can also mix in “Kaboom” bomb cards into the bag.
Children each choose a card from the pouch and keep it hidden.
Teacher also chooses a card. She shows her card and tells what she has and then calls on a student. They show their card and tell what they have.
If they have a bomb card, everyone yells “Kaboom!” and both the child who called on the bomb-card child, and the child with the bomb, are out of the game.
Play continues ‘til there is only one child left.
Scatter the cards all over the floor and have students leap around finding them.
When they are all picked up, have students hop over to the carpet area and sit in a circle. Arrange the cards in correct order by counting by 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, 5’s etc.
Decide which concepts you want to reinforce for Leap Day, run off those pages and have students make Itty Bitty booklets by tracing the numbers/letters, cutting out the individual cards and then putting them in appropriate order and stapling them into a mini-Leap Day booklet.
My Y5’s really enjoyed making, sharing and collecting these “just-my-size” booklets.
Click on the link to view/download Leap Day Frog Letter and Number Itty Bitty Card Booklets
To get the wiggles out show students how to play “Leap Frog.” Set a timer to ring in five minutes. Have students keep track of how many children they have jumped over.
Take this leaping activity a step farther and make large lily pads cut from green tag board.
Scatter them within leaping distance and write sets of skip-counting numbers on them. Have a set for counting by 2’s, 3’s, 5’s and 10’s.
Program a set for younger students to count by 1’s to whatever number you want them to count up to.
Have students leap from lily pad to lily pad skip counting as they go.
I adhere them to the floor with duct tape so children don’t slip.
To end the activity run off my “Hoppy Leap Day” lily pad and have them trace the numbers and make a 3-D lily out of a coffee filter.
Print off my "Hoppy Leap Day!" sticker labels to add that finishing touch.
For more number fun on Leap Day, I’ve also designed “Don’t get stuck!” Frog Facts.
A frog’s tongue is extremely sticky so they can zap insects for a tasty meal.
Children will enjoy writing fact families on the frog’s tongue.
Choose a specific number or two, have students write the equations on the frog’s tongue and then solve the problem.
Keep the tongues flat, or for a fun fine motor skill, have students roll the red or pink paper tongue strips into a coil using a pencil or crayon, they'll look like a party favor horn!
Click on the link for Frog Facts and Leap Day Lily Pad activity.
Another game that you can play as a reward for a job well done counting is “Hot Frog, Lizard, Rabbit or Kangaroo!”
This is played just like Hot Potato. Children sit in a circle and you play some jumpin jivin’ music.
They pass around a stuffed frog, lizard, rabbit or kangaroo.
When you stop the music every few seconds, the child holding the “Hot” thing is out of the game and has to Leap out of the circle.
Students who are out of the game, leap around to the music, ‘til there is only one child left who is the winner.
Scroll down for more Leap Day articles.
Pop back tomorrow for another Leap Day Activity, plus I'll have the entire Leap Day Unit done!
Leap Year Lessons: Activities For Leap Day Part 2
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 29th 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.
Leap Year Lessons: Activities For Leap Day
I was surfing the net for Lessons on Leap Day and they were really hard to find if not pretty non-existent!
So I felt it was really worth my time to make a unit for this day. I’ll be finishing it up this weekend and posting it.
What I thought would be fun would be for teachers to talk within their grade level, each choose a different activity to last a certain amount of time, and have students LEAP to a different class to do that activity.
To help get the wiggles out, they hop silently like bunnies, frogs, kangaroos etc. down the hall into the next kindergarten/first grade etc. classroom, to do another Leap Day activity.
I started doing research on animals that leaped, as I thought this would be really interesting for kids.
Wow! Did I learn a lot!
Most sources agreed that the highest leaper is the puma or mountain lion that can leap 5-6 times their height in a single bound, but when you compare the “contestants” in terms of their actual height that they can jump, relative to their body size, the tiny flea wins the gold medal!
For example, kangaroos are about 6 feet tall; they can jump 2 times their height, but fleas, can leap more than 130 times theirs!
This means if we would scale up a flea to our size, that would be like us jumping halfway up the Empire State Building in New York!
How’s that for a Leap Day leap?
I made a relatively easy reader, about interesting animals that leap and hop.
I tried to use words from the Dolch word list.
Students cut and glue the matching numbered pictures to the pages.
I also included a math extension where students tell which leaping animal was their favorite. Teachers can graph the results.
The Leaping Animal Booklet and graph are fun activities to plug into your Leap Day.
Click on the link to view/download My Leapin’ Animal Book Leap Day Activity Booklet.
I also wanted to find some YouTube videos for your little ones to watch to see all this leaping going on! Know that for everyone I find that's "Way Cool!" I view about 10 not so hot...
Here's the best of the best!
A University of Berkely study shot some high-speed video footage of leaping lizards, which supports a 40-year-old hypothesis about how theropod dinosaurs, like the velociraptors of Jurassic Park fame, adjusted the angle of their tails to stay stable when jumping. Click on the link to view this awesome clip. Leaping Lizards clip for Leap Day Activity.
I'd never seen real kangaroo's jumping with their babies in their pouch. Nice nature clip. Click on the link to view Leaping Roo's for Leap Day Activity.
No Leap Day would be complete without allowing students to play a little Leap Frog. Why not let them get the wiggles out jumping over each other and then catch this cute clip of real frogs competing in the very serious frog jumping contest in Calaveras County. Too funny, and boy are those frogs huge!
Click on the link to view Leaping Frogs in the Frog Jumping Contest of Calaveras County. Perfect for your Leap Day activities.
Finally, see a snake leap! I never heard of a leaping snake, but a video of a huge green one literally flying through the air as it leaps from one tree to the next in the jungle made a believer out of me. Also shows a winged lizard leaping! Click on the link to view a leaping snake and lizard for your Leap Day lessons!
Be sure and pop in tomorrow for a Leap To .29 Cents Coin Game.
Living History: Civil War Reenactment
Rewind History To The Present For A Peek Into The Past!
I wanted to post these pictures in case anyone is looking for some pix of civil war times just in case you’d like to enhance your study of Abraham Lincoln.
These would make a nice slide show.
During the summer, while we were visiting the Tawas Point Lighthouse in Michigan, my husband and I happened upon a “Living History” reenactment of this time period.
The folks pictured, were kind enough to pose and give permission to post. They do this kind of thing often and enjoy providing a really educational look into the past.
There were lots of hands-on activities, like dipping wicks hung from a stick into hot wax to make candles, a blacksmith demonstrating his trade, soldiers explaining their uniforms and shooting off their rifles.
You could even try your hand at sawing wood.
People displayed quilts, photographs and other things of the time.
Click on the link to view/download Living History Civil War Reenactment Pix
If you’re looking for another history-based activity, I wrote a play that my daughter’s class presented when she was in the 8th grade.
It was a terrific way for them to do research and learn about Lincoln and the time he lived.
Click on the link to view/download the play: A Day In The Life Of Abraham Lincoln
I hope to see you tomorrow! I'll post some more fun stuff!
Studying Coins 2: Coin Autograph Booklet
Money Matters!
The more different opportunities you give students to experience coins, the better chance they have of latching on to some sort of comparison, fact or piece of trivia that helps the light bulb go on, so that they are able to identify the coins and give you some information about them.
Making this Autograph Coin booklet is a fun way to do that. Run off copies for all of your students, or simply make one for yourself and share your teacher’s copy with them. 
I was fascinated with the President’s signatures.
Washington and Jefferson wrote with feather quills. Set up a center activity where students write their name with a feather-dipped in paint.
I did this for a Constitution Day activity and have a template for that. Click on the link to view/download the quill page from Activities For Constitution Day.
To get some name writing practice in, include an extra page with the booklet and have students collect some autographs of their friends, or to expedite things, have each student sign one paper, and run off copies for everyone, entitled Your Classmate’s Autographs.
Click on the link to view/download the Coin Autograph Booklet Do you have a teaching tip you’d like to share? I’d enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or leave a comment here, especially if you used an idea! Thanks in advance.
Studying Coins
My Y5’s really enjoyed making flip booklets.
The cutting and gluing were great fine motor skills, and writing facts offered practice in handwriting that prepared them for doing research in upper grades.
They especially liked the secretive and surprise element of something being hidden under a flap.
Here’s how to make a coin flip booklet:
Run off my templates on two different colors of bright copy paper for the booklet and white paper for the coins.
Students color the coins the appropriate color, then cut and glue them to the matching circles on the cover of their booklet.
Children cut on the lines to make flip-up pages.
Write the “Master” template on your board and brainstorm/discuss with students the answers. Write them on the board so that children can copy them onto their paper.
Make sure to tell them NOT to cut their insert page into individual pages, but to simply glue the whole long paper into the bottom of the inside of their booklet.
Some little ones get scissor-happy and make more work for themselves.
Another “head’s up”: Remind students to write the information in appropriate order, dime first, penny second, etc.
Some students want to start with the penny, but the dime is glued first on the cover, because I want to reinforce smallest coin to largest.
This helps give students another way to compare, recognize and remember the coins.
So that children remember how to make tally marks, Using glue dots, I glue 4 Popsicle sticks of one color on a sheet of construction paper, and then cross the 5th one over using a different color stick.
I number the sticks and put a magnet strip on the back of this mini-poster that I hang on my white board as a reminder. It also helps students remember which way to cross the 4 sticks.
You can give your students another opportunity to “play” with these 4 coins and enhance their flip book by having them do crayon rubs of the coins.
Set out a real penny, nickel, dime and quarter at a TV tray center, along with copper and silver-colored crayons and scrap paper.
Students put the paper over the coin and rub the crayon over it.
They choose their best picture, cut it out and glue it on the flipped-up page, to match the appropriate coin.
On the front of their booklets students write: It makes “cents” to Diane. Inserting their name on the end of the sentence and putting one word on the first 2 flaps and “cents to” on the 3rd flap.
Click on the link to view/download the Coin Flip Booklet
Once your students have learned all of the coins reward them with a certificate of praise. Click on the link for Coin Certificates.
I hope you and your students have a cent-sational time learning about coins this way!
If you have a tip you’d like to share, I’d enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or leave a comment here. Thanks in advance.
See you tomorrow with another coin idea; an autograph book of the presidents!
President's Day Activities 7: ABC-123 Traceable Cards
President's Day Games & Activities
A quick and easy center for your students on President’s Day is to make an Itty Bitty Alphabet or Counting booklet.
Students trace the upper and lowercase letters, cut them out and sequence them.
My Y5’s always enjoyed taking these “just the right-size” booklets home to share with their families, which helped reinforce the lessons that they learned.
They also liked collecting all of the different little booklets each month.
Make extra sets for in class. Run the uppercase letters off on a DIFFERENT color from the lowercase ones and laminate them so that you can play Memory Match games.
I find that if you differentiate the sets via color, you make it less frustrating for little ones to play memory games and they don’t take an inordinate amount of time either.
You can also distribute the cards an play “I Have…Who Has?”
Click on the link to view/download the President’s Day Alphabet cards.
Besides these traceable word cards, I help my students learn letters by making up Bingo songs.
The Bingo song is a great way to review the concept of subtraction and a clapping pattern as well + students LOVE singing.
What better way to review who the President and Vice President are of the United States than with this little song.
Print off the OBAMA and BIDEN bingo cards. Put magnet strip on the back and put them on your white board. Use them to sing the Bingo song.
Here are the words:
Obama is the president.
He is our Nation’s leader
O-B-A-M-A O-B-A-M-A
O-B-A-M-A
He is the President.
Biden is the VP
He helps the President
B-I-D-E-N B-I-D-E-N
B-I-D-E-N
Joe helps the president.
Click on the link to view/print the Obama Bingo Cards and song.
Click on the link to view/download my other Bingo Song Cards
If you teach a song each month you will have reviewed all of the letters of the alphabet except X.
Besides the alphabet, I made sets of numbers for counting by 1’s with pennies, by 5’s with nickels, by 10’s with dimes to reinforce not only skip counting, but recognizing these particular coins and their value.
There’s also a set for counting by 2’s and 3’s. All have covers so that the students can make individual Itty Bitty Booklets as well.
Finish up the counting activities by getting the wiggles out and have students count backwards from 20 or 10.
Once they’ve jumped into the air they can bounce out to their lockers and take their booklets with them.
Click on the link to view/download the President’s Day Counting Cards.
Whatever you’re doing on President’s Day I hope it’s letter perfect!
President's Day Activities 6: Two Writing Prompts
Pennies For Your Thoughts
If someone caught you daydreaming and a million miles away, you might have heard them asking you, “A penny for your thoughts.”
This is a nice writing prompt for students, especially on President’s Day, and makes a cute class book.
Brainstorm with your students of what they could think about. I think… the cafeteria should serve… I think that someday I would like to be a... I think tomorrow I will… etc.
Run off my template and have students fill in the conversation cloud and then glue their school photo next to it as if they are “thinking”.
Collate the pages and make a class book. Share it with the class by having students read their page when you come to it.
You can reward them with a shiny penny after they have shared their thoughts.
A similar activity is “Thoughts On A Penny.” So that students become familiar with what is on a penny, explain to them the data on the coin.
Run off the penny template on brown construction paper and tell students they will cut it out and fill in some informational thoughts.
Instead of In God We Trust as the motto on their coin, have them come up with their own personal motto, or simply write down one of their favorite quotes.
To help them with this, read a dozen or so very short ones from a list of favorite quotations and have them choose one.
Discuss where and when coins are minted and show them where that information appears on the coin.
In lieu of that, have them write down the city where they were born, and the year.
Around the bottom, students complete the sentence: I’m cent-sational because…
Students glue their penny to the kid character, add some facial features and hair; color and cut it out.
These make a nice bulletin board or hallway display.
Click on the link to view/download A Penny For Your Thoughts ideas
Whatever your plans for President’s Day I hope they are simply cent-sational!
Scroll down for some ABC-123 President's Day cards, perfect for a center activity or game for President's Day!
President's Day Activities 5: Patriotic Star Necklace
You are "Cent-sational"!
This patriotic necklace is perfect for President’s Day.
Make them up ahead of time as a sweet surprise for your students and have them lying on their desk, or let them have the fun of making them as a quick and easy center activity.
This is a nice review of small-medium and large as well as a patriotic color pattern plus the heart and star shapes.
Click on the link to view/download the You Are “Cent-sational”! star necklace patterns.
For another President’s Day activity scroll down to check out A Penny For Your Thoughts!
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