Leap on over for an extra special day! It’s not every day that we get to commemorate Leap Year Day. Which leads me to wonder just how should we celebrate?
Why do we even have an extra day on the calendar of February 29th every 4 years? There are 365 days in a year but It takes approximately 365.25 days for Earth to orbit the Sun. Note that extra .25?…a quarter of a day more than what we commonly think of in year. So in 4 years we have an extra day that needs to be accounted for. If we didn’t, then eventually October would be in the spring and 4th of July might be during a snow storm! Just to put a wrinkle in your understanding, every 100 years we don’t add in a leap year day. I know…crazy! That quarter of a day is actually 44 minutes less a full quarter of 24 hours, so eventually time catches up. Science is so cool!
Our calendar declares a Leap Day every 4 years so I feel we should be leaping around to acknowledge this once-in-a-4 year-event. Unlike other special days such as New Year’s Eve, Halloween or St Patrick’s Day, we don’t have set traditions to commemorate this interesting occurrence. But I’m all for celebrating, so we came up with few fun ideas to jump into honoring this interesting day…I mean it only happens every 4 years so let’s make it hopping great!
Adults and kids can leap into our fun. In honor of Leap Year, let’s play, create and learn. We’ll finish up with foods our leaping friends would want to eat!
Spring with Arts and Crafts.
Create frog hats for everyone at your table, or masks of all the various animals that like to leap.- Make a time capsule that you can open in 4 years…or eight! Write down your favorite activities, what you love the most and what your goals are for the next 4 years.
- Set up a crafting station to make paper bag frog puppets. You can include other “leaping” animals templates such as rabbits and kangaroos.
Jump with Games:
- Play the Lily Pad Hop: Cut out lily pads and place in a circle. Similar to musical chairs, place one less that the number of participants on the floor, play music and when the music stops, all the froggies need to hop onto a lily pad. Someone will have “fallen off” the lily pads. Keep eliminating lily pads as you go, until only one froggy is still leaping. (The adults love to let their inner child leap out with this game!)
Pin the Crown on the Frog: Use this template to make a frog poster and crowns. Put double-sided tape on the back of the crown. Blindfold one participant, spin them around and let them try to pin the crown on top of the frog’s head. Let everyone take a turn and who ever is closest wins.- Get Leaping: Play games like leap frog. Another fun game is “Longest Leap”, determining who can leap the farthest. Make a chart with the kids. (secretly teaches math skills!) Even attendees at an adults-only party will think it is hilarious to watch each other jump. Some folks can be hopping competitive!
Bound Over Everyone with Table Trivia:
- Without Leap Day, our calendar would be off by about 24 days every century, or every 100 years!
- The first Leap Year was introduced in 46 BCE by Julius Caesar of Rome.
- People born on a Leap Day are sometimes called leaplings.
- More than 4 million people around the world are leaplings.
- Historically, February 29th was a day when women were “permitted” to propose to a man. If he refused he would have to buy her gloves to hide her ringless fingers. Good thing that is not the practice today!
Who else leaps: Can you name other animals that like to leap? How about cats, hares (rabbits), lemurs, antelope, and goats? Some kangaroos can go 30 feet in one jump!
Hop over for a Leap Year Feast:
- What do other leapers like to eat? Vegetarian hopping friends such as hares, lemurs, goats and kangaroos, find lettuce, carrots, shoots, bark, fruits, grains and grasses yummy. Omnivores such as frogs, antelope and cats prefer birds, insects, slugs, snails and worms as well as all the choices preferred by vegetarian jumpers.
- Name three foods we eat all the time that the vegetarian leapers might like and three the omnivores would find tasty. Hint: salads, carrot cake, chicken, apples, quinoa….
What’s it Mean to Take a Leap:
- Leap of faith…
- Leap of courage…
Leap for these Recipes!
Search for more delightful recipes in your DinnerTime Recipe Box.
Use the filter function (found on right of your DinnerTime Recipe Box search) to find desserts, main dish, side dishes etc.
All our leaping friends will love this simple and tasty salad.
Can you guess why frogs would be delighted with a plate of these noodles?!!
Grains are always a big hit with leapers!