Engage Different Types of Learners on Pi Day

These Pi Day-themed activities will engage and inspire kids of all interests and backgrounds, especially aspiring mathematicians.

What Is Pi Day?

Pi Day is an annual celebration observed by math and science enthusiasts worldwide on March 14, the day that numerically represents the first three digits of pi—3.14.

When Was Pi Day First Celebrated?

Scientist Larry Shaw created "Pi Day" in 1988 and held the first celebration in San Francisco, where, among other activities, pun fanatics feasted on fruit pies in honor of pi.

Interesting Facts About Pi and Pi Day

In 2009, U.S. Congress officially declared March 14 National Pi Day.
Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.
Pi is an irrational number, so it can't be expressed as a fraction, and its decimal representation never stops or repeats.
Experts have calculated up to
March 14 is also Albert Einstein’s birthday.

Engaging Pi Day Activities

Interesting Facts About Pi and Pi Day

Best for all ages.

Make pi more relatable by showing students how to use MyPiDay.com to find where their birthday appears in pi. Results are displayed as a graphic with the pi symbol in the center its digits in a spiral shape around it. This activity's graphic can be saved as a screensaver, printed as a poster, or transferred to a t-shirt to create some Pi Day art.

Silly Mnemonic Sentences

Best for upper elementary through high school

Perfect for engaging students whose learning style makes them more comfortable working with words, this fun Pi Day activity and technique for memorizing pi’s unending digits involves using the little-known Pi language called Pilish, which is often used to help math lovers recall pi’s endless digits. In this language, the number of letters in each subsequent word matches the number of digits in Pi.

Here is an example from the Pi Wordplay page at Wolfram Mathworld.

May I have a large container of coffee? (3.1415926)
May = 3, I = 1, have = 4 …

Memory Challenge

Best for upper elementary through high school

Perfect for engaging students whose learning style makes them more comfortable working with words, this fun Pi Day activity and technique for memorizing pi’s unending digits involves using the little-known Pi language called Pilish, which is often used to help math lovers recall pi’s endless digits. In this language, the number of letters in each subsequent word matches the number of digits in Pi.

Here is an example from the Pi Wordplay page at Wolfram Mathworld.

May I have a large container of coffee? (3.1415926)
May = 3, I = 1, have = 4 …

Here, we've only scratched the surface of the many learning opportunities available for students on Pi Day. If none of these activities for Pi Day interest you, find one that brings numbers to life for your students and helps them grasp how pi is used in real life. Perhaps it's a Pi Day calculator game.

To learn how you can be more involved in your children’s education with more opportunities to provide meaningful input, visit the website for Connections Academy online public school. Or to learn about online private school, visit Pearson Online Academy ’s website.