Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 (because the date is 3.14, the beginning of the number for pi), and it’s a great time for kids of all ages to craft with circles, play with numbers, and maybe even eat some actual pie.
If your kids are younger but you still want to have some fun with this holiday, read on. (Activities for older kids to come!)
To introduce the idea of pi to younger kids, explain that it’s a number that expresses the relationship between a circle’s diameter (the measurement across the center from edge to edge) and its circumference (the measurement of the outside edge, all the way around).
Pi is an infinite number and the same digit never repeats (meaning there are, for example, never two 3s in a row).
Since pi is about circles you can make circle prints, cut our circles, use circles in art projects, eat round snacks. Go on a circle hunt! Play ring around the Rosie, or follow the leader in a circle. So many easy ideas.
Pieces by Polly talks about making fraction plates, repeating patterns with pies, making art with circles and making tiny snack pies.
Tinker Lab has a cute pi day printable art challenge. Can you use three colors to decorate the grids with different patterns in 14 minutes?
Royal Baloo has a fun printable pi board game where you collect cards with the goal of getting as many digits of pi as you can.
Teach Beside Me has a printable pi puzzle that goes together to show 25 digits of pi. It’s not as easy as it sounds because the digits repeat.
And this free pi poster from Cindy Lam at Teachers Pay Teachers can be filled out with one child or a whole classroom and includes fun things like listing your favorite thing that’s a circle or words that have the letters pi in them.
