On March 14, mathematicians and much of the world celebrate Pi Day. Since the approximation of the number pi is 3.14, March 14th was picked for the day. It was first celebrated in 1988 in San Francisco. As a math teacher I get excited for Pi Day, however our school is always on spring break on March 14th so I don't get to celebrate it with my students. This year I thought I would do a round-up of Pi Day activities and try to share ones for different age groups since much of what I see are for younger kids and I teach high school. Be sure to start your celebration with some pi jokes and riddles like these. Some of the Best Things in Life Are Mistakes shares a round-up of free Pi Day decorations! By the way Pi Day is also Albert Einstein's birthday. You can also have a birthday celebration for Albert!
What is π?
Pi or π is defined to be the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It is an irrational number meaning its decimal never repeats and never ends and cannot be written as a fraction. There are some fractions used to approximate π, but they are just approximations. The most common approximation used is 3.14. For more facts about check π out this video. Pi has a very multicultural history as it was "discovered" by most cultures around the world because of its use and where it shows up.
Celebrating Pi Day with Young Children
The first time I celebrated Pi Day with Hazel we baked a pie. It was a way to introduce her to a math holiday in a fun way. She was two. With young children like this I would also do a circle scavenger hunt. Point out circles versus other shapes since pi is seen with circles. And of course children of any age can color. Here are some free pi coloring pages (and other activities).
1) In the Playroom offers several fun coloring pages including some that show pi in action.
2) JDaniel4's Mom shares this fun coloring page. I love the colors it is shared here with!
3) Rock Your Homeschool shares a fun color by number pages to try out.
4) Rock Your Homeschool also shares several different activities including some color pages as well as fun facts, a word search and more!
Preschool and Kindergarten Aged Kids
With kids who know their numbers there are several different ways to approach Pi Day. First I have several games and activities shared by other blogs. Most of these activities will teach the symbol and/or vocabulary around π. I see these as early elementary.
1) Celebrating with Kids shares a printable pizza so kids can make their own pizza pie
2) Homeschool of 1 shares a printable Pi Day BINGO game to help younger children learn about pi and its importance in a fun way
3) And Next Comes L shares an I Spy math game that is great to start getting young kids to begin recognize various math symbols including π
4) Homeschool of 1 shares a word search for Pi Day to introduce some of the circle vocabulary
Next there are a couple projects to create art using π.
1) JDaniel4's Mom shares pi day paper plate craft
2) What We Do All Day shares a beautiful pi skyline art craft
For Elementary School Aged Students
Of course, the easiest way to discover π is to measure the circumference and diameter of circular objects and divide the circumference by the diameter. I shared a Word Document to record and guide students to do this. I took it further in the post but that is for older kids. Many people have students memorize a certain number of the digits of π. An interesting look at the actual digits is in this video where they look at a mile of them. They point out a few interesting things that happen with the digits. Several bloggers also shared some crafts and activities to learn the numbers and/or explore the circumference diameter ratio. The beginning of this video shows a great explanation of π and the circumference and area of a circle.
1) STEAM Powered Family shares some great activities to do with kids to teach them about pi including measuring the circumference and diameter with pom poms to get the ratio!
2) Red Ted Art shares a pi paper chain activity to help learn some of the digits
3) And Next Comes L shares a coding project by using the digits of pi to create a bracelet.
4) What We Do All Day shares a pi dice game to help kids learn some of the digits of pi
For Older Students
NASA provides an annual Pi Day Challenge for grade 4 through 12. NASA also offers free posters (including Planet Pi with five of the ways NASA uses pi) and articles about how they use pi as well as how many decimal places of pi we really need. You can try this year's as well as use some of the past ones. They also have 10 Ways to Celebrate Pi Day with NASA. Mensa for Kids also offers some different ways to celebrate including some shared here.
For middle school and high school students, activities tend to be a bit harder to find that are worthwhile. These kids have heard of π already. Measuring the circumference and diameter still works but some probably have already done this.
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| Squaring the Circle |
An activity you can try is called squaring the circle. I shared two versions in this post. One for the student who knows trigonometry and one for those that do not. Another good project is to create circle graphs and work with the circle is 360 degrees. This file shares an activity (#2) to do this and activity 3 is more circle work from geometry.
Another great idea is to create a Wallis Sieve. It is a type of fractal and its area is actually pi!! This post explains how to create one and some of the math. Plus there is another pi craft round-up!
Another idea is to write a pi-ku. A pi-ku is like a haiku but instead of the 5-7-5 syllables for each line you do 3-1-4. For example:
Some other things I found are videos!
- How an infinite series of fractions gives you pi.
- Pi & The Fibonacci Sequence
- A calculator exploration that gives pi but shouldn't explained
- Why?
- Riemann's Paradox explained
- Solving Basel problem
- Calculating π by hand using Newton's Method
- Calculating π by hand and this video has a great explanation of circumference and area of a circle using pizza!!
How will you celebrate Pi Day this year? For more ideas be sure to check my Pi Folder on Pinterest. NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) offers many different activities and lessons for Pi Day broken by grade levels. (Some of the activities you may need to be a member to access.) Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH which is actually the publisher of the books we use at my school) shares some ideas for high school students here. Math Geek Mama has a great list of ideas as well. I also suggest checking out Teacher Pay Teachers. There are many free ideas for Pi Day at different levels.
