Animals that Leap
Leaping Through Letters And Numbers On Leap Day!
Although I made these sliders specifically for Leap Day (These are animals that are fairly good at leaping/hopping) they also fit in nicely with your other monthly themes.
I’ve designed a slider for all of my units and had my Y5’s make one every month to review a variety of report card standards.
They enjoyed making and collecting them. Sliders were especially helpful for my ESL students and strugglers.
The Leapin' Animals have strips for skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's. Students can also make an upper and lowercase "Letter Leaper" and younger students can count by 1's.
Here’s How To Make A Leap Day Slider:
Run off the animal templates on construction paper.
Decide which letter or number strip you want to review and make copies.
Cut them on a paper cutter. Pre-cut slits with an Exacto knife.
Give children a choice of which animal they want to make.
Students cut out their Leap Day critter and add some colorful details with crayons or markers.
Give students glue dots and wiggle eyes to add a bit of pizzazz.
Children trace the letters and numbers with a highlighter, marker or crayon.
Add a math extension to the process by having them choose 2 or 3 colors and trace in an ABAB or ABC pattern.
Demonstrate how to insert their strip into the slits.
I've made a template for some "Hoppy" Leap Day! sticker labels, if you want students to be able to add one to their creations.
When everyone is done assemble them on the carpet area and skip count together, start leaping from one number or letter to the next, sing the ABC song, spell words, names, etc.
To help get the wiggles out, children can take out their strip and you can do the Leap Day Animal Pokey with them. I've included the song in the packet.
Students can also use their Leap Day Pal for a spatial direction review.
The teacher tells students to put the kangaroo beside, under, above, behind etc.
Teachers can also review body parts with students by having children place their squirrel on their knee, hip, thigh, wrist etc.
Click on the link to view/download Leapin' Animal Sliders for Leap Day
I hope you have a “Hoppy” Day learning and leaping as you go!
Scroll down for more Leap Day Articles
Be sure and pop in tomorrow for some more fun teaching tips!
As I stated in the first article, I thought it would be fun for your students if you got together with your fellow teachers and each offered a different activity on Leap Day.
Students would then Leap on over to another classroom for whatever time you deemed appropriate, to do that activity and continue leaping until they had visited each teacher and done however many activities your grade level had planned.
I made an entire packet of table top lessons to choose from, for some quickie morning activities that include a maze, pinch & poke, bingo dot, word find, what letter or number comes next, pattern pages, similarities and differences etc.
You can make these into “Ready-Set-Leap into action!” timed activities, or give them a specific amount of time to complete whatever packet you decide to make for them.
You can start off the day by leaving students a Leap Day note and pencil on their desk.
Students can keep all of their papers organized by tucking them into the Mama Kangaroo pouch that they made out of a paper plate.
Click on the link to view/download Leap Day Table Top Lessons.
Help eliminate the wiggles by acting out a few nursery rhymes that have leaping and jumping in them like Jack Be Nimble.
Click on the link to view/download Leapin’ Nursery Rhymes for Leap Day.
Sing the Leap Day Song, to the tune of Bingo, to help review the concept of subtraction, and reinforce a clapping pattern.
Since Leap Day was added on, to keep the seasons on course, you might also want to do a writing extension and make the class book Our Favorite Seasons, which also includes a graphing extension.
Click on the link to view/download Our Favorite Seasons class book, perfect for Leap Day.
Another season-related activity is the easy reader: Seasons Outside My Window, which includes an art activity + several skill sheets. Click on the link to view/download this Leap Day activity.
Read my version of There Was An Old Lady. It's a cute mystery with a fun ending that reviews the months, and includes the 30 Days Hath September Poem.
Students will enjoy “feeding” her the various months and pictures that match them.
Click on the link to view/download this hands-on story appropriate for Leap Day.
Movin' Through The Months is also a wonderful whole-group activity that culminates with a great class book that reinforces the months and also includes the 30 Days Hath September Poem.
This is a photograph of the bulletin board I made when we completed our book. As you can see we did lots of math extensions too.
Make your own, or print off mine to read to your students.
Click on the link to view/download this story that makes a nice review of the months for Leap Day.
End your Leap Day lessons by giving everyone a certificate of praise, which is also included in the Leap Day packet.
Whatever you decide to do to celebrate Leap Day, I hope you have a hoppin’ good time!
Scroll down for more articles on Leap Day and be sure and pop back tomorrow for my 6th and last Leap Day one.
