Eight Ways to Celebrate Pi Day

8 Ways to Celebrate Pi Day

1. Discover Pi.  Tell your students they are mathematicians! Mathematicians discover patterns in nature and that’s all pi is. A number that occurs in nature! Provide students with several round objects, such as balls, lids, oranges, Frisbees, CDs, plates, etc. Using a paper tape measurer or some string, have them measure and record the circumference and diameter of each as precisely as they can. Have students divide the circumference by the diameter. The result should be an approximation of pi, 3.14 units!
2. Dress up! Buy or make your own t-shirt. Accessorize with round jewelry. Get creative. Have the students design their own pi shirt and have a competition or a fashion show exhibiting their creativity! Coordinate with the art teacher for some extra fun cross-curricular ideas! Here is a link to some of my favorites: Etsy Pi Day Goodies

   

   my shirt and necklace last year
   

   

   pi day dress 2016

3. Run a pi-K. Speaking of cross-curricular ideas, work with the PE teacher to organize a school-wide pi-K! (Instead of a 5K, students run 3.14 kilometers). The ideas with this are plentiful. You could make it a fundraiser or have it on a weekend where families can get involved.
4. Eat pi(e)! Bring pies for your students! Or, get parent volunteers to donate them! If you don’t want to do pies, how about pizza pies? Or round shaped treats, like Moon Pies or Oatmeal Crème Pies? Let your creativity round wild. The students will love it!
5. Decorate! Don’t forget to decorate your classroom, just like you would for other holidays! Let students create round art work, make your own, or download this recently updated freebie in my TpT store.






6. Celebrate the history of pi. There are some misconceptions about how pi was discovered. Let students research the truth and make presentations or just have a class discussion. (Again, you could make this a cross-curricular connection with the history unit.)
7. Compete! Have a memorization contest. My students always love this one! See who can memorize the most digits of pi! Make it a class competition and give a prize (perhaps a pie) to the winners.
8. Write pi-kus. Then have a pi-etry slam. A pi-ku is a type of haiku that has 3 syllables in the first line, one in the second, and four in the third line. 

     Want more? Make your Pi Day lesson plan easy with this activity that's already planned for you!

      However you decide to celebrate with your students, be sure to make it fun! Students need to have a positive relationship with Math!