Leap Day Activities for Kids

Leap day, that extra day added to February 29 every four years, exists for a very important reason: to keep our calendar in sync with Earth’s actual orbit around the Sun.

A year isn’t exactly 365 days long. It takes Earth roughly 365.2422 days to complete one revolution around the sun. That extra 0.2422 days might seem tiny, but over time, it adds up. If we didn’t account for it, our calendar would slowly drift out of sync with the seasons.

But the good news is that extra day gives us something fun to celebrate! Leap Day activities often have to do with frogs, as you’ll see below, but you don’t have to include frog themed things if you don’t want to. Let’s check out some fun Leap Day activities for kids.

The teacher behind Tejeda’s Tots is actually a leap day baby, so reading about what she does in the classroom (post includes links to paid resources) is a lot of fun. Ask your kids what day you think leap day babies should celebrate their birthdays and see if you get different answers.

Mama’s Learning Corner has a printable leap day unit study activity book that works for elementary school kids. It includes information on why we have leap year and how cultures have dealt with time through history. You can download a personal copy free when you sign up for emails, or buy a license for classroom use.

Teach Beside Me also has a little printable book about leap year and why we need that extra day.

Woo Jr. has some printable leap year activities including mazes and a word search, as well as a collection of frog coloring pages, a tracing page and other crafts.

If you want to go all in on frog things, try making a paper plate frog (Our Kid Things), a frog fly catch game (Toucan Box) or try your hand at making origami jumping frogs (Origami Fun).

If it’s warm where you live or you have space for jumping inside, you can have a long jumping contest, play leap frog or hopscotch. Spend some time in math counting to 29 or doing math problems that add up to 29. Do some leap year STEM with Science Schoolyard. And don’t forget to read a leap year book like Leap’s Day or tell some leap year jokes!

Next Plan Idea:

Bastille Day Activities for Kids

Human brains are pretty amazing, allowing us to think, feel, create, communicate, move and more. But humans aren’t the only animals with cool brains, as Crab Museum explains in the book The No-Brainer Brain Explainer (illustrated by Bruno Valasse).

This book, aimed at kids in grades 1-4, is colorful and silly but also educational about how brains actually work, with billions of neurons sending electrical and chemical signals around the body.

“Everything we think, feel and experience comes from an electrical relay race, with neurons passing chemical batons to each other,” the book says. “The constant chatter of billions of brain cells creates your entire world.”

The book compares the brains of mammals to those of crabs (the book is “written” by a crab after all) and notes that crabs have fewer neurons and of course are much smaller, but they have separate parts of their brains that control their eyes and their legs. Crabs are also capable of remembering things, using tools and solving puzzles.

Some animals’ brains allow them to know more about their world in different ways from humans, such as spiders being sensitive to vibrations in their webs and catfish having an amazing sense of taste, with taste sensors all over their bodies.

It notes that 95 percent of brain activity goes toward things we do unconsciously, like breathing, walking and catching a ball flying toward us. It also talks about dreams, memory, how our emotions try to predict the future, where brains came from and fun facts about brains. For example, did you know a sperm whale is believed to have the biggest brain of any creature that’s even lived? Their brains weigh 18 pounds, compared to just 2.5 pounds for humans.

Information on what creatures have the smallest brains, the toughest brains, the most brains and those who actually eat their own brains will delight kids (and maybe gross them out a little bit). They’ll also enjoy learning about the mycelium network of fungi, which is like a brain without a body, and slime molds, which are like a brain without a brain.

It ends talking about why human brains are so special because we’ve found ways to work together, communicate and build communities on a scale bigger than any other animal.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy this colorful, silly and informational book about brains!

About the book: 64 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $19.99.

Next Plan Idea:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply