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Teachers: What are the most successful Pi Day activities?

57 Responses:

  1. for our pi day, my school asked all the faculty members if they would be interested in being “pi’d” and their name was put on a plastic jug. students would place money in their jug throughout the week and the teacher/faculty member with the most money got pi’d at an all school assembly. but then the idea came about that if we raised a total of $350 (we are a small school) then all the faculty that signed up, would get pied.
    it was a great turn out, and we raised a total of about $400!
    we donated all the proceeds to multiple charities.

  2. Our class made a paper chain with a different color representing each digit, and each class worked on it, and it was over 60 feet long by the end of the day!

  3. I baked several types of homemade cookies for my 100+ students, so each cookie would be a different size. We discussed the origination of pi and the non-terminating decimal it creates. We also discussed the relationship between the diameter and the radius and the formulas that use pi. Each student then choose a cookie. They had to measure the diameter of their cookie in centimeters. They then had to calculate the area and the circumference of their cookie using the correct formula. Once all information was on their Exit card (that I later collect at the door) they could enjoy their cookie.

  4. in class we are using the first 20 digits in pi and write a story using the numbers like 3.14 u will use a 3-letter word then a 1-letter word then a 4 letter word and keep going

  5. proving that pi exists by transcribing a circle and measuring its circumference and diameter then solving for pi in the equation c=pi d

  6. This was our first Pi Day celebration in 4th grade. We made pi plates. We glued the Pi symbol into the middle, and colored it using ten different colors that coincided with the numbers. Then we wrote the digits of pi around the outside border as many times as we could. Some went around 5 times!!!! Then we ate apple pies that had the pi symbols on each piece. It was fun and delicious.

  7. Someone mentioned that they make Pi Bracelets, with each bead color representing a number. Well, I’m a poor 1st year teacher and I couldn’t afford all those beads for my 100+ student load. So I just bought red and black beads (the popular colors come in big, cheap bags) I chose those colors because they are the school’s colors. Red represented odd numbers and black represented the even numbers. I did it for my 6th graders and they did the first 20 digits of pi. It was a perfect fit on their wrists

  8. In my sixth grade class, taught by Mr.Kuntz, we were each responsible for bringing in juice, forks, pies, plates, and whipped cream. Mr.Kuntz measured the pies and he had us each do the problems for the area and circumfrence of each pie. Then he had us eat as much pie as we wanted, and we made a party out of it. It is a good activity, because you can make your students motivated to learn new formulas, and if they succeed learning pi, then you get to have a celebration. Overall it makes learning math a very fun experience, for both the student and the teacher.

  9. My teacher had a scavenger hunt. It was very fun. I’m in her 3rd period class and my partner and I won 1st place in the hunt.

  10. I’m a Middle School Math Teacher, and with my Grade 7 class, we read the stories: ‘Sir Cumference and the Knights of the Round Table”, a story about the introduction of the circle vocabulary (circumference, diameter, radius, etc.), and “Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi”, a story about the discovery of the value of Pi. They loved it! We then did an exploration activity, where students had to measure the circumference, the diameter and the radius of various circular shaped objects that they had brought from home, and find the value of the circumference divided by the diameter, and the circumference divided by the radius. They were amazed about the similarities of their answers! In all, they had a wonderful time with the storytelling and exploration activity! I’m proud to say it was a very successful period!

  11. Making Pies, measuring them, taking the circumfirence and area, and then eating them!!

  12. make songs about pi with eight facts to the tune of a nurserey ryme

  13. I teach 7th grade Honors Pre-Algebra. I had each student measure the circumference and diameter of a circular object to the nearest tenth of a cm the day before pi day. They then recorded the classes data on a chart. I had them calculate C/d. They also found the class average which they discovered was very close to pi. Then they created a scatter plot to see the correlation between diameter and circumference.

    On pi day we ate pie and discussed our findings. I also read them the book “Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi”. However the big hit was the photo stoy I made for them with picture of our class set to the music “Lose Yourself (In The Digits)” This song is great (clean) and a free download.

  14. we celebrated it with a pie eating contest, pi recitation, and circle drawing contests

  15. At the Leadership and Entrepreneurship Public High School (LEP High) in Portland Or., we had our 2nd annual Pi Day Olympics! Events included pi memorization, pie eating (with no hands!) and a math challenge.

    In classes, freshmen looked at the distribution of the digits within various excerpts of pi, while sophomores created their own version of the probability experiment (circle inside a square) to determine an approximate value of pi (we got 3.08 so pretty close!).

    We had a great time and learned some interesting stuff about pi too!

  16. Today (Pi Day), I received a phone call from the Frontier High School in Hamburg NY, who were celebrating Pi Day. Why? My number is 314-1592! That was a nice surprise. I am now working on a trip to the class to present what I do with math as a professional. Of course, I am a statistician in Manufacturing.

  17. I am a ninth grader, and in my Geometry class people brought pies, drinks, and eating utensils (forks, napkins, etc.) for EXTRA CREDIT!
    And it was a free day.
    Happiness!

  18. eating pie

  19. Hi, I’m from Antwerp, Belgium. We are seniors and we convinced our math teacher to watch the movie “Pi” during math since we have 2 hours in a row today. And someone of our class made chocolate pie in the form of the symbol pi.

  20. We just finished our first PI DAY! The middle school of Carolina Christian School made a pi paper chain (with a different color of paper for each digit.) I’m very proud of the 22 students in our 6th-8th grades who worked really hard as a team…and made a chain of 2,040 links in only one hour!! We are planning to hang it around the balcony of our gym. We then had a contest of memorizing the most decimal places of pi and our winner was able to say 84 places (and he only started working on this last night.)
    Of course, we finished our day with lots of real PIE.

  21. Our math teacher had us make posters with facts about Pi on them. It was fun!

    And today we spent the class looking at fun PI websites and eating oatmeal pies!

  22. We are an 8th grade mathematics classroom in Philo, Ohio. Each year, we celebrate Pi Day by eating pies (of course), holding a contest to see who can memorize the most digits of Pi (our record is 261 digits), reading creative stories about Pi, determining if our birthdate is in the digits of Pi, and writing our own creative stories about Pi.

  23. I am in the CP trigonometry class at Turkeyfoot Valley Area High School. We celebrated pi Day by bringing in different types of pies. We of course, had to tell the class what the area of our pie was, as well as the circumference! I brought in pizza (pie), and others brought in fruit-filled pies, and even a few pot pies!! It was amazing!

  24. My Home Skills class made chocolate cream pies for Pi Day.

  25. I’m in a senior high school AP Calculus class, and we had pi(e) days all this week because it’s that big of a deal! Everybody brought in pies and it was awesome.

  26. At SkillsTech Australia in Brisbane, I’m teaching a group of stonemasonry apprentices to make a 300millimetre diameter solid granite ball from a rough block. I used Pi Day to introduce mathematical concepts associated with diameters and circles in the theory room this morning.

    Together with my students, we looked at several websites featuring large rotating granite balls, and calculated surface area proportionate to the diameter. This is relevant because it would be necessary to know how long it would take to hone and polish the ball.

    We also calculated the mass of the ball relative to its volume and density. This is relevant because of the need to know how to safely handle, transport and install materials.

    Pi Day presented a good opportunity to discuss mathematical concepts in a ‘real world’ context.

    My Pi Day photo is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/stonemasonry/2331051707/

  27. mmmmm. pie.

    yes, I bring in pie!

    we calculate the area of the pie, and its approximate volume. We then determine calories per square inch of pie. Given the size of the pieces, we calculate calories per piece and just for kicks, we estimate volume of our bites and calculate calories per bite.

    there’s more fun stuff where that comes from, like comparing prices, etc. on pies of different sizes.

  28. I gave my Geometry students one week to do a Pi Research Project. They worked in pairs and handed in a typed one-page report on Pi and a summary of their visual project….which could be a poster, poem, song, video or performance. One group had their garage band write and perform a Pi Day song and another group went around the lunch room one day and got everyone to say one digit of Pi in order. We played the videos on the morning student news. Extra credit was given to groups who brought in an actual pie to share with the class. A great way to incorate writing, research and individual talents to a math class. :)

  29. Making a visual representation of pi. 10 colors of paper. Each digit gets a color and we link them to together in rings in the order of appearance. we’ll start in 1st period and see how far we can get by eight period. I heard there was a record from the site where I got the idea that someone created a chain that was over 2000 rings long. We’ll be hanging it from the Gymnasium ceiling.
    Since we are in our stats. unit now we’ll also be making frequency charts to see which digit appears most frequent.
    Lunch time activities toss a frizbee into a round garbag can to enter your name into a draw for your sixth period class to win a pie party after lunch.

  30. Hello,

    I am a teacher working on my lesson plan for Pi Day.

  31. I am a middle school math teacher… what activities can I do tomorrow?

  32. This is the second year I will celebrate pi day with my 8th grade students. One new activity we will do is to make a pi spiral. I provide students with a worksheet where a spiral is made with circles. They will select a different color for each digit, and color in the circles based on their color choices. They are really cool to look at, and a visual representation of this non-terminating, non-repeating number.

  33. We measured everything round in the room to prove the formula and ate SQUARE pies.

  34. My 6th grade students will be working on a cross curricular Pi activity with Humanities (just finished a unit on Greek mythology) where the students will be writing myths on the origin, creation, or the original use of Pi.

  35. I’m an 8th grade student, and on Pi Day we made a paper chain, each link with a number of Pi on it, and we made it so long it went around the school! We also ate pie and pizza “pies” in math instead of work. :)

  36. In my school Pi Day is relatively new but we did it as a part of our fundraisers throughtout the year. We made Pi Badges and we made Pi biscuits. We of course had our grand memorising championship which always goes down well! This year myself and another teacher took an assembly with the students and just told them about Pi Day and Pi they all reacted well and we are so happy that people have told us maths is cool again! Next stop, the musical…

  37. I think the teacher of any math class should reflect back to pi n make students remeber ten pi numbers. If most kids learn about pi n it’s real defintion, some of the kids would thank pi because it will help in College as well.

    Thank You!!!

  38. make a song! its fun.

  39. Have the students come up with methods to memorize digits.
    1) I do a 10-digit string: 3.141592653, then a phone number: 589-7932, then a locker combination: 38-46-26, for a total of 23 digits.
    2) Some guy made a poem, and each word has the number of letters for a digit (3141…= Now I, even I…)
    3) Come up with rhyming words and/or pictures: tree, sky, door, sky, hive.

  40. I am looking for some fun activities to do with a grade4 class
    Thank you!

  41. have your students read “The Joy Of Pi”, then try to memorize and recited as many digits as they can! Give a treat of pie for everyone after! Happy Pi Day!

  42. I am a Pi Day Fanatic!
    In anticipation (about a week ahead to allow for drying time), my 8th graders have always created
    their own T shirts using Fabric Paint or Fabric Markers.(Well worth the mess!) They wear them to school on 3/14 and we continue the festivities by eating Pie and working on critical thinking problems that utilize Pi.

  43. Pie day is my favorite day!!
    iam such a nerd for it…i have memorized the first 50 numbers!!!
    3.141592653897932384626..and so on and so forth

  44. I’m a 8th grade student and my class is doing this:Pi Day Assignment - Due March 14
    Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14…get it? Because Pi is equal to 3.14…..). Your assignment is to gather information about Pi from the internet (use Google, for example) and write an original poem, song, or rap. Be creative and have fun. Your work should be typed to be handed in on March 14. You can earn bonus points for presenting/performing your poem/song/rap in class. As an alternative, you may create an 8 1/2 by 11 inch “poster” incorporating your Pi discoveries.

  45. I celebrate Pi Day with my fifth through eighth grade math students. Some of the activities they have enjoyed are making a pi paper chain and bracelet (each digit represented by a different color), a pi scavenger hunt that I found on-line, graphing the frequency of digits in a string of pi, discovering an approximation of pi (cut a string the same length as the diameter of a circular container then see how many times the string goes around the container or measure the circumference and divide by the diameter), and bringing in round treats. I also have a pi reciting competition with a circular treat for the winner at each grade level. I hand out the first 1,000 digits in pi one week before Pi Day.

  46. For the past several years I have celebrated Pi Day with my 5th graders by reading Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi, made Pi bracelets (each digit represented by a color with the 3 before the decimal being a larger gold bead), with Pi(e) graphs, finding our birthday in Pi (a website that locates strings of digits), making a bar graph of the frequency of the first 100 digits of Pi, measuring circular objects’ circumference and diameter, and finally eating pie.

  47. My mom is a teacher and she told me that her friend has students bring in circular foods, but before they eat it, they have to find the circumfrience and the diameter

  48. For the really young ones, I like to read the book “Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi” by Cindy Neuschwander. A fun introduction to what pi is.

    [Editors Note We’ve also heard great things about the book, available here: Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi.]

  49. i’m a student, but my class is doing pi trivia.

  50. posterboards all about pi and all you do is be creative and get an easy 100 for just DOING it!!!

  51. That is what I am trying to find out.

  52. pisaying bye for everybody pi..pi..pi..

  53. does anyone have a link to a pi cross stitch pattern??

  54. I am composing a piece of music based on the first 500 digits of Pi. 0=rest - 1=a - 2=b…the rhythm is based on the number of eighth notes 1=1 eighth note, 2=2 eighth notes or a quarter note…

    I will perform the piece on March 14th for the students during an assembly.

  55. We play pi shuffleboard. I draw 3 big circles on the floor, inside of each other and the kids use rolls of masking tape as pucks. They toss and/or slide circles of tape[identifying marks on side] to see who gets closest to center. Players each have 3 circles of tape that they slide to remove others from center. The winner then challenges the next 3 players until we declare Pi shuffleboard winner.

  56. We have a pi recition contest (to win a pizza with a pi symbol made from pepperoni) another pizza is given to the most creative pi themed treat - if it’s circlular, they must find the surface area. Also, we do a pi webquest- there are so many interesting pi websites and articles!

  57. Have a pi day party !!!!!