How to Throw the Ultimate Homeschool Pi Day Party
March 14 is Pi Day — and celebrating this mathematical constant makes a fun family party, any way you slice it.
Pi Day was one of the very first homeschool holidays we celebrated together — and like creating our first successful batch of oobleck, celebrating Pi Day was one of the things that made me feel like a “real” homeschooler. As the kids got older, our celebrations got wilder and more creative, and now I can’t imagine not throwing a little homeschool shindig to celebrate March 14 (3.14, the rounded-off version of pi). Here are some of our favorite Pi Day fun ideas:
DO THIS
Turn your wall clock into a pi clock by translating the hours into radians. (You can use the pi clock by SB Crafts as a model if you want to get fancy with your equations.)
Put your pi skills to the test with Buffon’s Needle, a geometrical probability problem that dates back to 1777. It involves dropping a needle onto a sheet of lined paper and determining the probability of the needle crossing one of the lines on the page — an answer that’s directly related to pi. The Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (MSTE) division of the College of Education at the University of Illinois has a cool simulation that walks you through the problem.
Take the Pi Day Challenge. Matthew Plummer, a former math teacher at Boston’s Hanover High School, likes celebrating Pi Day so much that he created a delightful series of online pi puzzles — some of which call for mathematical solutions, some for research, and some for critical thinking.
Write a Pilish — a poem based on the successive digits of pi. The number of the letters in each word of your poem should equal the corresponding digit of pi: so, the first word would have three letters, the second one, the third four, and so on.
READ THIS
In Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi by Cindy Neuschwander, the bold knight’s son Radius must find the cure to the potion that turned his father into a fire-breathing dragon.
WEAR THIS
The Einstein Look-a-Like competition is a beloved part of Princeton University’s annual Pi Day celebration, so join the festivities by getting dressed in your Einstein-ian best.
EAT THIS
Pie, of course!
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