Celebrating the Leap Year in First Grade
Happy Leap Year! Leap Years are so exciting because we essentially get “an extra day”! I love celebrating this fun day in the classroom while still keeping things low-prep, chaos-controlled, and standards-based. We love to pack in all the leap day phonics, grammar, writing, math, and we even make sure to create personal student time capsules for students to take home and open on the next Leap Day (in 4 years!). Check out some of the fun activities that we do on Leap Day below, and grab the entire Leap Day Pack here.
The best part?! This pack is routinely updated every 4 years so that you don’t have to re-purchase it over and over. Just re-download it each Leap Year to get the updated version!
Leap Day Crowns and Folder Covers
Everyone needs a Leap Day crown! We love making these first thing in the morning, and decorating our folder covers. We store our math, literacy, and grammar activities in the folders throughout the day so that we can keep everything in one space. I just use a large piece of construction paper folder in half to make my folders.
Create a Leap Day Time Capsule
This is one of my favorite activities to do, and families always love it. Students get to create a Leap Day Time Capsule that they get to take home and store in a safe space until the next Leap Day (4 years). I always eagerly anticipate hearing from my littles 4 years down the road when they finally get to open their time capsules to see what they were doing on the last Leap Day, and to see how things have changed and how much they have grown. It is such a sweet sentiment, and it’s fun that the time capsule is “closed up” for what feels like a loooong time to a first grader, but 4 years down the road isn’t too far away! Everything you need to make the Time Capsule (including labels, etc.) is in this pack!
Leap Day Literacy
I like to stick to doing our routine literacy lessons on Leap Day as to not get behind in content, but I love being able to sprinkle in Leap Day themed centers during our literacy center block! There are word sorts, Phonics games, and Phonics color by codes included in this pack!
Leap Day Grammar
Students always love this Leap Around the Room activity. I “hide” the cards around the room and students have to leap around with clipboards to find the cards and record their answers. This particular set focuses on nouns vs. verbs.
Leap Day Math
During math, I still stay on top of our regular scheduled content and lessons, but I sprinkle in a bunch of fun Leap Day themed activities in our math centers. Number line activities, 100 and 120 chart activities, Leap Day addition games, and math color by codes are all included!
Leap Day Writing
Who doesn’t love a good writing craftivity?! This Leap Day craftivity is included and makes a super cute bulletin board display when they are all hanging up together! If a craftivity isn’t your thing, there are writing prompt papers with illustration boxes to use instead!
Let me know if you end up using this pack to celebrate your “extra day” on Leap Day. I would love to hear about how much fun y’all had!
