On March 14th of every year we celebrate Pi Day. Now, this is much different than Pie Day. Pie is that delicious treat that comes in a variety of types. You can get apple, pumpkin, cherry, blueberry, and so many more. Pi, without the e on the end, represents the ratio between the circumference and diameter of a circle. That comes out to be about 3.14 when rounded. That’s why we celebrate Pi Day on 3/14 (March 14th) of every year.
The timing of Pi Day worked out perfectly because we’ve recently been spending a lot of time trying to find both the circumference and area
There’s so many other uses for pi. Did you know that they use pi to help find new planets? Or, did you know that pi is useful in studies they’ve done about how crickets locate their mates? Pi especially comes in handy if you’re an engineer trying to find the surface area of volume of a round three dimensional object. It’s amazing how often pi is used outside of the classroom!
In order to celebrate the day, we began by watching a couple music videos about pi. Mr. Avery found these videos through Richard Byrne’s Free Tech 4 Teachers website. Both were a great reminder of everything we had learned about pi to date. See if you can recognize the tunes used in either of the videos.
While students watched the videos, Mr. Avery set up pies around the room that were graciously made or donated by parents. Since pies are usually round and pretty close to being circular, students were asked to visit each pie to find the radius, diameter, circumference, and area of each one. We were curious to know just exactly how much pie we would be able to eat! Once finished measuring and finding all our calculations, Mr. Avery was able to start cutting up each pie. In order to cut each slice, he used a knife to cut a radius to the center point. Once he had cut two radii, he was able to serve a sector (piece) to each student! Watch our Animoto below to see our Pi Day in action!
Once we wrapped up all of our pie eating, we had a competition to see who could recite the most digits of pi! Even though we usually refer to pi as 3.14, pi is actually a never-ending number. You can see the first million digits of pi by viewing this website. Currently, the world record for reciting pi stands at around 61,000 digits! We certainly didn’t expect to quite get there but our winners were quite impressive in their own right! In the two videos below, you can see the winners from each class. Tessa had the highest number correct in the grade, reciting 82 digits of pi before her first incorrect digit! Hannah, the winner from the other class, wasn’t far behind reciting an astounding 72 digits of pi! That’s not easy to do in front of a camcorder and a group of your classmates!
At the end of class, we were running short on time, but we had just enough of an opportunity to sing “The Circles of Math,” a song Mr. Avery wrote to the tune of “The Circle of Life” from The Lion King. We had a lot of fun singing it right at the end! It turned out great for only being able to sing it once!
Pi Day turned out to be an amazingly fun, educational, and delicious day! We all look forward to being able to celebrate it again next year!
How many digits of pi do you think you could remember?
What’s your favorite kind of pie?
Dear Mr. Avery,
That looks like a lot of fun! Are we going to do this, this year? And are we going to be learning about pie this year?
From,
Aiden C
Dear Mr.Avery,
I’m not sure how many numbers in Pi I could remember, but I think it would be a lot. My favorite type of pie has to be pumpkin pie. I think it very yummy and flavorful! By the way I know the song that the Pi song was made after, it’s a very good song.
Sincerely,
Marshall
Dear Mr Avery and class
Pi Day looks really fun! Is that all you did that whole day? I’ve actually never learnt about Pi, but I’m looking forward to it now.
My favourite pie would have to be … mince pie! I haven’t really tried a lot of pies, but the simple ones are still always tasty! What is your favourite pie?
Yours sincerely
Molly
Room 24
Dear Molly,
That’s exactly what we did all day! It was a lot of fun to spend a whole day just working with pi. I actually teach two different classes though so each class got to do the same thing.
I don’t think I’ve ever tried mince pie before. What’s in it?
My favorite pie is definitely apple pie. I love a nice warm slice of apple pie with a little bit of vanilla ice cream on the side. Always a favorite of mine!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Tessa,
Reciting the digits of pi can be hard, and sometimes it can feel like your head is going to explode. That was nice of you to give out your prize like that.
Thank you,
Kelsea R. 😀
Thanks Kelsea! But yeah I didn’t think I needed any whoopie pies because I had SO MUCH PIE! Have a nice day.
-Tessa
Dear Mr. Avery,
I know this is a little late and I’ve said it before, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You are my overall favorite teacher and I am so grateful that I got to have you twice! 🙂 6th grade has been so much fun and nothing could be better then having the best teachers ever for my last year at Dennett. It brings tears to my eyes thinking about leaving the Dennett and leaving you and Miss Girard. I cried in fourth grade when I left your class and it’s going to be even harder to leave you again and the school! Thank you for being you and making class as fun as possible! Hope your birthday was just what you wished for! 🙂
Sincerely,
Alyxandra
Dear Alyxandra,
Thank you so much for your comment! I’ve been really lucky to have been able to have taught your class for two years. You’re all great students. It’s going to be weird to watch you all moving on to the Middle School. Of course, you can always still write on the blog or come visit!
My birthday was everything I could’ve wished for. I had an amazing time and it certainly helped that the Bruins won!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
Sorry I’m a little late, but happy birthday! You are an awesome teacher and you do so much for all of us, and also your visitors, to help us understand different concepts. It has been a blast this year and in 4th grade, and I am going to be very sad to have to leave you and the wonderful school and staff. Thank you for being an awesome teacher, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
~ Emma W.
Dear Emma,
Thank you! You weren’t too late at all. You still wish me a happy birthday on my actual birthday!
I’ve been very fortunate to have been able to have taught you for two years. You’ve been a great students to have and I’m looking forward to a great rest of the year!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope your wishes come true!
~Sam 😀
Dear Sam,
I had a perfect birthday! It was everything I ever could’ve asked for! I hope all the rest of them are just like my 30th birthday!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Mr. Avery,
Loved the Pi Day post. A BIG fan of yours and appreciate the passion you have for your students and learning.
Wishing you a special Happy Birthday as you celebrate #30.
Rich@rcantrell
Rich,
Thank you so much for the birthday wishes. It was an amazing day. I certainly couldn’t have asked for anything more.
Thank you for the support that you give us. We love keeping our blog and being able to share our learning with the world!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery and class,
Hello my name is Mark. I am going to comment on pie day. My favorite pies are apple and pumpkin. What’s yours? I thought Pi Day was cool.
Sincerely,
Mark
Techie Kids
Dear Mark,
Pi Day was a great day! I loved how we got to eat food but also tie it into math. It really is amazing how many places you can use pi! Without it, we’d have no circles at all. I can’t imagine a world without circles, can you?
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr Avery’s class,
What a fabulous post! I enjoyed your Circles of Maths Song and it sounded like you all had a lot of fun singing it.
I couldn’t believe Tessa and Hannah could recite the digits in pi. I thought they must be reading it but it looks like they weren’t reading it? How did they remember so many digits?
Do you know what is really funny? In Australia we say dates like DD/MM/YYYY. So Pi day didn’t actually work for us. 14th March was 14/3, not 3/14.
Well done, mathematicians!
Mrs M☀rris
Hello Mrs. Morris!
I remembered so many digits of pi because my dad (ever so kindly) helped me! 🙂 I thought my brain was going to EXPLODE because my heart was beating so fast! 😆 For now enjoy your day!
-Tessa
Dear Tessa,
Thanks for your great reply and I really can’t believe that you could remember so many numbers! How great is your dad for helping you.
I’m really glad your head didn’t explode!
Talk to you later,
Mrs M☀rris
Dear Mrs. Morris,
I am surprised that my sister recited 82 numbers of pi too. Also we didn’t know he was filming until we look behind. They really memorized that many numbers of pi but Tessa really memorized 102 numbers of pi. Also I didn’t know Australia did the opposite date of what we did.
Love,
Fiona P.
Dear Mr. Avery,
I am surprised my brain wasn’t going to explode in the middle of pi! Although, I did give away both of my whoopie pies because I did NOT need anymore sugar. WE ATE…SO…MUCH…PIE! I did NOT think I would get to 82 digits of pie let alone beat Hannah with 72! Anyways, have a wonderful day!
-Tessa
@ http://tessatime.edublogs.org/