Ways to Celebrate Pi Day

March 7, 2017

No, it’s not “Pie Day,” it’s “Pi Day!” Each year on March 14th (also known as 3/14), we celebrate one of math’s most perplexing and interesting numbers – 3.14 (also known as pi). For decades, pi has fascinated mathematicians because the digits to the right of the decimal point go on forever, with no discernible pattern. Whether your students are in elementary school or high school, there are plenty of fun ways to celebrate pi day throughout the classroom.

Pie Feast

Anytime students get to eat desserts in class, they’re sure to be excited about the lesson. Surprise your students with fresh baked pie and serve it right before your math lesson.

Numbers Face-Off

Give each of your students 10 minutes to memorize as many digits of pi as they can. When time is up, give each kid the chance to show off what they learned. Make sure you give the winner a piece of candy or even an extra slice of pie!

Pi Necklace

Younger kids can have a hard time understanding that pi never repeats or ends, so show it to them in a visual way they’ll better understand. Give each student a long string and an assortment of beads. Assign a color to the numbers 1 – 9 and have your kids follow the color chart to create their very own pi necklace.

Pi Scavenger Hunt

Have your students look up the answers to a few fun facts and math questions about pi. You’ll even get to tell your students something they’ll probably never hear from you again – that, “you can have your phones out for this activity.”

A few good questions to ask are…

1. What is Pi the ratio of?
2. Who were the first people known to find a value for pi?
3. In the first one million digits of pi, how many threes are there?
4. What does it mean to “square a circle”?
5. What was the most inaccurate version of pi? Explain who, when and what the value was.
6. Who memorized 42,195 digits of Pi on Feb. 18, 1995? Where was the person from?

Though we doubt you’ll ever need to know much past 3.14, other than maybe to impress your peers on Pi day, here are the first few hundred digits of pi.

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923 0781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230664709384460 9550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954 9303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485 6692346034861045432664821339360726024914127372458700660631558817 4881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384 1469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185 48074462379962749567351885752

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