Pi Days of Yore: Activity Suggestions From 2008 Submitted by Teachers, Students & Everyday People

Pi Days of Yore: Activity Suggestions Submitted by Teachers, Students & Everyday People

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!
By Melanie Mar 14, 2008 at 6:01 pm

Making Pies, measuring them, taking the circumfirence and area, and then eating them!!
By Alice Mar 14, 2008 at 5:57 pm

make songs about pi with eight facts to the tune of a nurserey ryme
By Daniel Mar 14, 2008 at 5:27 pm

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.
By S. Browning Mar 14, 2008 at 5:26 pm

we celebrated it with a pie eating contest, pi recitation, and circle drawing contests
By max carroll Mar 14, 2008 at 4:56 pm

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!
By Mr. Kieron Mar 14, 2008 at 4:10 pm

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.
By Mark Trudeau Mar 14, 2008 at 2:38 pm

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!
By Anonymous Mar 14, 2008 at 2:36 pm

eating pie
By Pirate Mar 14, 2008 at 1:30 pm

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.
By maxim Mar 14, 2008 at 1:15 pm

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.
By Mrs. C. Mar 14, 2008 at 12:11 pm

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!
By Alyson, Emily, and Carly Mar 14, 2008 at 10:27 am

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.
By Robin Stutes Mar 14, 2008 at 9:52 am

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!
By Ashley Stockwell Mar 14, 2008 at 7:35 am

My Home Skills class made chocolate cream pies for Pi Day.
By Jim Mar 14, 2008 at 6:04 am

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.
By Gebralder Kollman Mar 13, 2008 at 11:26 pm #

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/
By Simon Brown Mar 13, 2008 at 10:19 pm

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.
By Lainie Mar 13, 2008 at 10:11 pm

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Pi Days of Yore: Activity Suggestions Submitted by Teachers, Students & Everyday People

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