Students learned about the need for leap year and performed calculations to create a beautiful pattern showing Leap Years between 1904 and 2092.

New School Montessori students in 1st-3rd grade celebrated leap year by learning why we add an extra day to February’s calendar every 4 years. It’s to allow our calendar to more closely match up to our solar year. In general, if a calendar year is divisible by 4, then it’s a leap year. (However, even though we add a leap day every 4 years, there is an 11-minute difference that builds up over 300-400 years, and we eventually are off by enough that another correction has to be made).

Students followed the assigned instructions, starting in the year 1904 and adding 4 years to it. They then added 4 years to 1908 and so on, ending with 2092. A tessellation design with close-fitted shapes was coded so that all leap years were to be colored in red to reveal a pattern. Students were elated to complete their calculations and their tessellations, which was a nice way to bring art and math together.

 

           

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