Leap year activities – KS1 lesson plan

What's included?

2-page PDF file

Key Stage

KS1

Age

Years 1-2

Subjects

Art & Design, Citizenship, Health & Wellbeing, Maths, Science

Enjoy the fact that ‘an extra day means extra play’ with these cross-curricular leap year activities for the classroom.

Find out about ‘leaplings’ and learn the rhyme that helps you remember the days in each month. Try some number games using the four times table, and measure lengths of leaps to see who can jump the furthest. You can even hold a leap day party on or around the 29^th, and pack it with as much extra fun as possible!

Leap year activities KS1 objectives

What a leap year is
Why the leap year was created
How many days there are in each month
Counting forwards and backwards in fours
How to organise a party

Getting started

Introduce the term ‘leap year’. Begin by asking children if anyone knows what it means. Can anyone guess? Ask children which month we are in now. Do they know how many days there are in February? What is different about this February? Explain that this year there will be an extra day, or leap day. Invite children to think about how they would like to celebrate the extra day. What would they like to do? How could they make it into a special day?

Judith Harries is an experienced early years and primary school teacher. She specialises in teaching music and drama and creates educational content for a variety of publications.