FREE Leap Day Activities

Leap Day is upon us! Get ready to celebrate Leap Day 2024 in the classroom with these FREE Leap Day Activities.

What is Leap Day?

February is the shortest month. It usually has 28 days. But every four years, an extra day is added to the calendar. And this is the year!

It actually takes 365¼ days for the Earth to orbit the sun. A typical year only has 365 days. If we didn’t observe leap years, it would throw off our seasons. Of course, this would take a long time, say 750 years or so. But eventually, the seasons would even swap.

Why Do We Celebrate in February?

Adding an extra day to February dates back to Julius Caesar. At the time, the calendar was based on the Roman Calendar, which was based on the lunar calendar and only had 355 days in a year. Over time, this caused the seasons to drift in and out of sync.

Julius Caeser introduced the Julian calendar, based on the sun, which included a leap year system. When the Julian calendar was refined into the Gregorian calendar in 1582, the tradition of adding a leap day to February every four years continued. 

FREE Leap Day Activities

Leap Day is a rare and exciting event for students. The fact that it only occurs once every four years makes it special. Celebrating this special day in the classroom can be fun and easy!

Our FREE Leap Day Activities make it easy to teach kids about Leap Day and practice essential math, reading, writing, and grammar skills!

And the best part is that this resource is easy to prep and implement! You don’t need any extra supplies, just copies of the resource and some pencils.

Creating a Time Capsule

This Leap Day project-based learning activity for grades 2-5 will have your students hopping through a series of math, reading, writing, and grammar puzzles to put together an imaginary time capsule.

This PBL includes 6 activities related to celebrating Leap Day 2024. Students will jump from one activity to the next, completing tasks to find items, including newspapers, photos, school work samples, and more. Then, they will lock the capsule for the next four years to capture this moment in time. 

Students will use and apply academic and problem solving skills to answer questions and complete puzzles, ultimately uncovering the code word that will seal in the Leap Day fun. All of the fun is included in the resource. 

Easy to Differentiate

This fun activity is super easy to differentiate. This resource includes two separate versions of the puzzles, one for grades 2-3 and one for grades 4-5. Simply select the activities that are best for your students.

It’s also easy to prep and use in the classroom. There are long supply lists or complicated instructions. All you have to do is print and present. So you can jump right into learning!

Skills Covered

• Reading comprehension
• Text evidence
• Parts of speech: nouns, verbs, and adjectives
• Letter writing
• Estimation
• Place value
• Money
• Addition & subtraction 
• Measurement
• Line plots

The upper grades version also includes adverbs and fractions. 

How to Use the FREE Leap Day Activities in the Classroom:

There are many ways to use these FREE Leap Day Activities in the classroom. 

They are the perfect whole group activity to break up your regular material. Plan to work through the entire PBL on Leap Day for a fun learning activity.

Or, if you’re short on time, try using one or two activities a day for the week leading up to Leap Day.

You can also allow students to work on the activities independently, with partners, or in small groups. You can even place the activities in centers or use them for morning work.

No matter how you use them, students will love creating and sealing a time capsule. 

Grab Your FREE Leap Day Activities Now!

Grab your FREE Leap Day Activities today and have fun while keeping the focus on learning. This PBL activity includes:

• 6 different learning activities related to creating a time capsule
• 2 separate versions for lower (2-3) and upper (4-5) grades
• Color/black & white versions
• An answer key
• Detailed teacher directions

Have a Not So Wimpy Day,