It’s a leap year — plus it’s almost spring — which means it’s the perfect time to teach young students all about animals that leap, jump, and hop. 

Books about animals are a proven way to get kids excited about reading — and they're also a great way to get both fiction and nonfiction titles into kids’ hands.   

Whether you want to use the hilarious Frog on a Log to teach about rhyming, syllables, and sounds, or National Geographic: From Tadpole to Frog to introduce the concept of life cycles, your students will love exploring the natural world through engaging books.    

You can use all of the books listed below to introduce different animals to your students and explain and discuss why they leap. Photographs and illustrations in the books will assist students’ understanding of the animals while helping them to make connections from text to the world. 

Tying the titles you read in class back to leap year is a fun way to introduce the concept of calendar years. Explain to students that because it takes approximately 365.24 days for Earth to orbit the Sun, we round the days in a calendar year up to 365. And to make up for the missing quarter days, we add one extra day to the calendar every four years. 

Shop all of the best fiction and nonfiction books about animals that leap below! You can find more books and activities at The Teacher Store.