29 Fun Leap Year Activities for Elementary School Students in 2024

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Yes! 2024 is a leap year! I have always been fascinated by Leap Years! The fact we get an extra day on February 29th is just mind boggling! Leap Year is also a great theme to explore with kids in the classroom when learning about calendars and the seasons. So, I thought a set of fun Leap Year Activities and ideas for the classroom would be useful!

leap year ideas

There are lots of educational themes you can explore for Leap Year:

Now.. I listed this collection as 29 Leap Year Activities for the 29th February.. I have in fact, quite a few more for you.. so you should find plenty of inspiration. I have loosely grouped them into the following themese, that you can “leap to” in an instant if you wish:

Leap Year Writing Activities

Leap Year Writing activities certainly are popular in the classroom.. I mean, what teacher doesn’t like their students to write more. You can easily set with no preparations needed. Here are some writing activities headlines:

  1. Write to your future self – as leap year is 4 yrs apart, a letter from your 4yrs younger self could be fun to read! What does 10yrs old you have to say to 14yrs old you? Or what does 14yrs old you want to tell 18yrs old you! It is worth getting your students to focus on the age differences and how they think they will be different.
  2. Where will I be in 4yrs – similar to the letter to yourself, you can try and answer this popular “interview question”.. where do you you see yourself in 4yrs time? Maybe you will have finished elementary school or high school. Maybe you are trying out for a sports team or maybe your family is planning to move. What do you think will happen in 4yrs time.
  3. The World in 4yrs time – Taking away the focus from “you” – how about going big and see what changes they think may happen with 4yrs time? For older ages groups is this a great way to explore current affairs and world problems.
  4. Leap Year Fiction – finally, get your students to write a piece of sci-fi fictions. This can be as wild as you wish. For example, what if you really DID only age on your birthday… and your birthday is the 29th Feb – could you live 4x as long as others? What about aliens that only come and visit on the 29th February? What if the 29th February didn’t exist? What world events would not happen (for this you need to also consider famous people born othe 29th Feb)
  5. Start a story “In four years time…” and see where it takes you.

Leap Year Reading Activities

When “in doubt” find a story! We love books and we love reading. Here is a set of book lists to inspire you for your classroom:

You can also get students to do some research online what significant events happened historically on a leap year and see if you can find any fun facts!

Leap Year Maths

Depending on the age group you are working with, here are some leap year maths ideas:

  • Coloring & Basic Number 4 activities: for our preschoolers and kindergartners, you may wish to look at some basic number 4 activities – e.g. coloring pages, playdough mats, simple counting activities etc
  • Explore the number 29: similarly, can you explore the number 29? Again, using coloring sheets. Do counting activities. Count out 29 sweets, do 29 steps etc.
  • Sequencing: The easiest Leap Year Maths, is to look at sequencing and getting students to complete sequencing maths lines. What numbers do you “leap over” in your sequence etc.
  • Multiples of 4: the four times tables is also a great theme to explore during leap year. What multiples and divides by four. Does 2024 divide by 4? Etc
  • Leap Year Maths: A leap year needs to be dividable by 4 – expect end of century years, which need to be dividable by 400. E.g. 2024 IS dividable by 4, as is 2020. But NOT 2017. Similarly 2000, is dividable by 400 (and is a leap year) whilst, 1900 is not dividable by 400, and is not!
  • Leap Year Maths: work out the next leap year and then the next 5 or 10 leap years etc

Leap Year Craft Activities

Of course, we need a leap year crafts section, after all, Red Ted Art is ALL about Easy Kids Crafts! The best Leap Year Crafts, are crafts that involve the theme of “leaping” and “jumping”. So in other words, think, frogs, crickets and even kangaroos. You could even do some bunny crafts – though Frogs seem to be the most popular. Here are some cute crafts for you!

Leaping frogs for Leap Year

Leap Year Jumping Frogs

Of course we have to craft some jumping frogs! These little origami frogs are the perfect jumping frog paper craft that students can make quickly and easily. We have printable worksheets for it as well.

finished frog

3d Paper Frog Coloring Page

A simple activity that is quick to set up – make our cute 3d Frog Coloring Pages. The best bit? Though this is part of a larger “paid” bundle, you get to download the frog for free! Yes a free 3d Frog Coloring page, perfect as a quick Leap Year activity. This is a nice and simple activity for our young students!

Leap Day Frog Card

Potato Print Frog Cards or Art Projects

Or how about making some adorable printed frog cards? This is a super simple process – combining potato prints with fingerprints to make these fabulous Leap Day Frogs! If not as a greeting card.. then why not incorporate these printed frogs in a Leap Year Art project?

toilet roll frogs

Toilet Paper Roll Frogs

A classic little craft from us here at Red Ted Art HQ. Over the years, we have made MANY toilet roll crafts.. and of course our collection HAD to include a little toilet roll frog.

steam frog activity

Jumping Frog Science (Static Electricity)

Science Sparks explores some jumping frog science with this simple but fun static electricity activity. A super simple set up and all you need is a balloon and some paper!

new years eve time capsule
Time Capsule

Leap Year Time Capsule

A time capsule, as mentioned as part of the writing activity is a great little leap year activity. Though our original time capsule was a “point in time” created for New Year’s Eve a leap year time capsule is based on the same idea… with the plan that you review it in 4yrs time. For example you can add:

  • writing activity thoughts
  • today’s newspaper (ie with 29th February time stamp)
  • a copy of a completed about me mini book
  • a photo of your family and pets
  • a photo of your house/ street or local high street (how does it change with time)
  • information about current popular toys/ brands/ tik tok trends (it is fascinating how trends change over time)

Then find a large jar or similar container that can be “sealed” and pop all your thoughts and leap year collections inside. Revisit in the next leap day in 2028!

Leap Year Games

Finally, play some leap year games. These fall into two categories: Moving games and desk games.

Moving games you could try these fun activities:

  • Leap Year hopscotch (ie regular hopscotch, but you can switch the numbers out to make them multiples of 4)
  • Leap frog (a great way to burn off some energy outside)
  • Make a leap frog obstacle course – this can involve hopping around or over things
  • Have a jumping competition – who can jump or hop the furthest

Desk leap year games:

  • Tiddly winks is always appropriate – you can use your jumping origami frogs for this
  • Play the connect 4/ Match 4 game
  • Search online for some Leap Year Bingo, Leap Year word searches or printable Leap Year Board Games! It is hard to pick out just the one for you, but there are many free leap year game resources out there for you!

I hope that is enough to get you going this Leap Year. And I hope that on this February 29th you have lots of fun whether with students in the classroom or at home!