2020 is a Leap Year Display Banner
This "2020 is a Leap Year" display banner prints out over 3 A4 pages. Each overlaps the other a little so you will need to trip and glue or sticky-tape together to get the full length.
Leap Year
Hoppy Leap Year! 29th February comes only once every 4 years, and 2020 is the next time that will happen. To celebrate we have a range of leap year printables which you can use in the classroom or home, all with a hoppy leap year theme!
What Is A Leap Year?
The Earth takes 365.24219 days to orbit the sun. This means that, without leap years, the seasons would slowly change over time. Leap years help the calendar year stay in step with the astronomical year.
The first leap years were introduced by Julius Caesar over 2000 years ago. In the Julian calendar, a leap year fell every 4 years. This proved to be too many leap years, however, so the calendar was changed.
The Gregorian calendar (named after Pope Gregory XIII) has 365 days. A leap year containing an extra day occurs when the following rules are satisfied:
- A year must be evenly divisible by 4 to be a leap year.
- If the year can be divided by 100 it is only a leap year if it can be divided by 400. So 2000 is a leap year, but 2100 is not. Most people don't know this!
The extra day is added to February making 29th February.
In a tradition thought to date back to the 5th century, a woman may ask a man to marry her on leap days!
Fun fact: A child who is born on 29th February is known as a “leapling” or a “leap-year baby”.
Our Leap Year Resources
2020 is a Leap Year Poster
2020 is indeed a Leap Year - so here's a simple poster to put out on display!
Calendar Rhyme Colouring Page
Here's a colouring page featuring the Calendar Rhyme and a leaping frog for Leap Year - a fun way to help the kids learn the days in the each month.
Calendar Rhyme Poster
Despite it's old fashioned language, there's no doubt that learning the calendar rhyme helps children (and many, many adults, myself included) to remember the number of days in each month.
Hoppy Leap Year Bookmarks
Just for fun, wish the kids a Hoppy Leap Year with our funny frog bookmarks! Print onto card, cut out carefully and laminate if you wish. We've left a little space on the front for your child's name, the year, or a message.
Is it a Leap Year Poster
Here's a fun froggy poster that explains how to work out whether it's a Leap year - or not.
It's a Leap Year Colouring Page
It's a Leap Year - so why not get the green crayons out and colour in this lovely leaping frog!
Leap Day Worksheet
29th February can feel like a "bonus" day, so this worksheet asks children to write about what they would do with that bonus day, if they could do anything they wanted...
Leap into the Future Worksheet
This fun Leap Year worksheet asks children to imagine what the world will be like, four years into the future. Choose from black and white or colour.
Leap Year Board Game
Playing a game is a great way to learn how Leap Years work, and to practise some maths skills at the same time. Just put your counters on the "Start" stepping stone, then roll one dice. Work out whether you have landed on a leap year or a normal year.
Leap Year Comprehension
Learn all about Leap Years with this printable comprehension worksheet. Read the history of Leap Years and the rules for them in our Gregorian calendar, then answer the questions.
Leap Year Finger Tracing
Use your child's forefinger to trace the letters on this Leap Year handwriting worksheet, starting on the dots. Why not colour it in then laminate it, so that it can be traced with a dry wipe pen too?
Leap Year Handwriting Worksheet
There's plenty of handwriting practise available on this fun Leap Year worksheet, with letters to trace and space for your child to write the word unaided too.
Leap Year Poster
A fun leap year poster to print - featuring a charming frog, of course! The next leap year is in 2016.
Leap Year Stepping Stones
To help the frog hop across this pond, children need to work out which lily pads contain leap years and which don't. The rules for leap years in the Gregorian calendar are stated at the top of the worksheet.
Leap Year Stepping Stones Four Times Table
What better time for kids to practise their 4 times table than at Leap Year! Hop the frog across the lily pond, only landing on lily pads that are multiples of four.
Leap Year Stepping Stones Make 29
As it's a Leap Year, use the excuse to practise your sums! Hop the frog across the pond by landing on lily pads that add up to 29...
Leap Year Stepping Stones Make 4
Here's a fun way to practise simple addition at Leap Year, hopping the frog across the pond by landing only on lily pads that add up to 4.
Leap Year Word Search
We've hidden the word "leap" 20 times in this grid to make an interesting word search puzzle for Leap Year. It's quite a challenge to find them all...
Leap Year Word Tracing
Trace over the dotted letters spelling Leap Year and colour in the funny leaping frog! A fun handwriting worksheet for 29th February...
Lily Pad Number Line Skip Counting by 4
We designed this lily pad number line, with numbers divisible by 4 highlighted in yellow, to be used with out frog number line markers, with Leap Year in mind - but of course if works well for 4 times tables practice too.
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Our frog theme! We've got lots more frogs - frog crafts, frog printables of all sorts, frog worksheets and frog colouring pages too. Hop on over!
Frog Theme
Learn the months of the year and the days of the week with the help of our calendar topic.
Calendar Topic