Searching for Pi
Pi day every year is celebrated on March 14th! It is my favorite day in the math classroom. Not only can you have a fun celebration, but you can get your students engaged in imporant math skills.
Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The coolest thing is that no matter what size circle you are measuring you can always find pi by dividing the circumference by the diamter. Your students will find this so very cool!
One of my favorite ways to explore this mystery of pi is by creating a scavenger hunt with items found around your classroom. This can be as easy or as complicated to set up-depending on the age of your students.
Setting up Pi Day Scavenger Hunt
Go around your classroom and school and select a variety of circular objects. Here are some ideas of things you might find in your classroom or school:
Clock
Circular table
Hula Hoop
The top of a mug or jar
a CD (if it something you still use!)
An edible circle treat (such as a cookie)
Depending on your students age you would want to stick with 2D objects, otherwise you could use 3D objects including a globe, basketball, sphere, etc.
Starting the Scavenger Hunt
Once you have your items collected display them throughout your classroom. Before beginning the activity go over circumference and diameter with your students. Make sure they are comfortable with finding those measurements.
Next, have your students create a simple table in their math notebooks. The table should include a column for the item’s name, the circumference of the item, the diameter and a column for the number they get when dividing the two.
Students will then go around the classroom to measure the different items. This is a great team or partner activity!
Talk about the Pi Mystery!
When students are finished measuring and calculating bring everyone together. Have a discussion about what they notice. Explain that their calculations should all be close to 3.14 (noting margin of error for measuring exactly and dividing accurately). Talk about this mystery of pi and why they thing this happens!
Other Variations
There are so many other ways you can do this activity. You can have rotating stations. You can also have students just search on their own for circular items to measure around the classroom or even around the school (depending on school rules for roaming the halls). In addition students could also bring items from home.
My hope is that you and your students have fun with this pi day activity. The more excited you are about this mystery the more excited your students will be!
*Looking for an easy print and go scavenger hunt? You can also find this pi day scavenger hunt already created for you with reflection questions in my TpT shop by clicking on this link.