Pi Day Lesson Plans, Activities, and Games
Gifted Students Can Celebrate the Fun of Working with Pi on March 14
Mar 3, 2009
Pi Day is a birthday celebration for Albert Einstein at the San Fransiciso Exploratorium museum in that started in 1988. Since then, teachers have used the idea to create Pi magic in their classrooms. The momentum is similar to how Read Across America was inspired by Dr Seuss's birthday, but has taken on its own meaning.
Pi Day Lesson Plan Resources
Students who don't know what Pi is all about need to learn the number and its significance before playing any Pi games. Education World is the site to go to for a Pi lesson plan starting point. Their collection is comprehensive and indicates grade ranges. Their offerings include some that are particularly appealing to gifted students, including:
- Making a Pi Necklace
- Pi Day Songs
- 3.14 Trivia Game
- Pi Day Activities for all grades
- Circles in Geometry for grades 3-5
- Discovering Pi for grades 5-7
- Pi Day Lessons for grades 5-8
- Cross-Curricular Activities for Pi Mathematics for grades 5-8
- Pi Day WebQuest for grades 6-8
- The Derivation of Pi for grades 6-8
- Creating Pi Poetry for grades 6-12
- Proving Pi for grades 9-12
- Monte Carlo Estimation for Pi for grades 9-12
- Pi Day Activities for Geometry, Algebra 2, and Trigonometry Classes for grades 9-12
Like much of Education World, the collection is a portal that goes to other sites. Some of the lessons are archived copies of sites that no longer maintain the original pages.
Pi Day Classroom Activities Resources
From writing Pi-kus to sending Happy Pi Day cards, the Official Pi Day website is the best place for teachers who are looking for ways to have fun with Pi, which is what most gifted kids will want to do on Pi Day. The site includes:
- a forum for teachers to share ideas (such as making a Pi day scarf)
- images with e-cards for students to mail to each other
- suggestions from teacher's best ideas
Pi Day Idea Exchange
The "best idea" section of the Pi Day site growing treasure box of creative thinking. Some of the ideas in the idea exchange include:
- creating a paper chain with different colors of paper representing each number
- bringing different types of Pi and types of pies figuring out the circumference and area
- making a Pi spiral
The list is growing and very communicative, with teachers posting questions and answers.
Pi Day Games
There are several games teachers can play with students on Pi Day. Students will enjoy:
- Pi Memorization Competition – Students line up, spelling bee style, and list as many digits of Pi as they can.
- Pi in a Circle – Students stand in a circle, and toss a beach ball to one another. When they catch the ball, they have to add another digit of Pi. If they can't, they are out of the circle (but the game continues). The teacher or a reluctant-to-play student should keep track of the digits on the board so everyone can see where they are.
- Pi-Ku Triangle – Students stand in groups of three and improvise haikus (5-7-5 syllable structure) about math or Pi.
Much like Square Root Day, Pi Day is based on having math fun with dates. Pi Day also has Pi Minute, which comes from extending the digits of Pi a little farther into the day. For teachers who are really serious about celebrating Pi, Pi Minute is March 14 at 1:59:26. Students and teachers can have fun bonding together, and gifted students are particularly interested in having fun with math and word play.
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