Pi, that infamously long number that students love to memorize, has its very own day. March 14th, otherwise known as 3.14, is the perfect time to let loose with some March Math Madness. The three ideas below will help pique your students’ interest and turn March into math month in your classroom.
Pi Day Activities for Kids
Race to the Place
The week before Pi Day, start focusing on having students memorize as many numbers in Pi as they can. With an infinite number of digits, you can either have a pre-set number that you would like students to memorize or let them memorize as many as they can. On Pi Day, have a Race to the Place (Value). Use a set of numbered cards, one number per card, and the person who can put all of the numbers in the correct order the fastest, wins. You could also have the class work in teams to line up the numbers of Pi if you have a large class.
I Love Pi T-Shirts
Let students wear their Pi proudly with a decorated t-shirt. On plain white t-shirts, have students decorate their shirts with the first few numbers of Pi using fabric paint. If you do this a few days before Pi Day, your students can wear their shirts proudly on March 14th.
Pi Day Rap
Working in small groups of three or four students, have the children come up with a Pi Day Rap. Music is one of the best ways to help children remember, and if they are creating the rhyme themselves, chances are that they will retain the information even longer. Have students work on the assignment for a day or two before Pi Day and perform it in front of the class on March 14th. Videotape the performances and put them on your password protected classroom blog for parents to see.
What are some of your favorite Pi Day activities? Does your school celebrate it together or is it left to each teacher’s discretion? Share your ideas and thoughts with us!
Dana S says
I like the Place Value & the rap. Since we’ve just finished up poetry, we may create a poem about Pi Day. This would be a great cross-curricular activity since I teach Reading.
Rhonda Guinn says
Great ideas!
Alexandra C. says
I have them make a “Pi Quilt.” Choose 10 colored pencils, one for each digit 0-9. Using graph paper, color the squares in order with the appropriate colors for each digit of pi. So if red is 3, green is 1, and blue is 4 your first three squares would be red, green, blue.