Fun Pi Day Ideas

Looking for Pi Day ideas? Here are a bunch of fun ways to observe everyone’s favorite math holiday. Take a break from your normal middle school math lessons and celebrate!

Every year, on March 14th (3.14), math-lovers rejoice and spend national Pi Day commemorating their favorite mathematical constant, pi.

Even if you or your kids aren’t self-described math geeks, you can still have fun with this number by adding some fun activities to your day.

Happy Pi Day to all the math lovers!

Pi Day Ideas

We commonly shorten the decimal places of pi to 3.14, so it makes sense that we celebrate Pi Day on March 14th.

One of my favorite things about this annual celebration is that it’s a wonderful opportunity to have some fun with math. Especially if you can sneak in some real life math projects for middle school.

WHAT IS PI?

Pi is a mathematical constant, irrational number, and the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It’s often written as the decimal 3.14, but in reality, the number just keeps going and never repeats.

It’s no surprise that famous mathematicians spent their lives studying this number and it continues to fascinate people today.

That this math expression is also a national holiday in the month of March shows just how popular it is.

Pi Day Activities

Instead of working through endless problems and formulas, have a good time studying the world of pi. It’s a great opportunity to have some hands-on fun with math.

Here are three enjoyable activities that will help middle schoolers understand a little bit more about Pi.

Estimate Pi

By using an old geometric problem, Buffon’s needle problem, your family can estimate the number Pi for yourselves.

Here are instructions for a hands-on math activity or have your tweens use this simulator.

Pi Memorization Game

Encourage your tweens to learn as many digits of Pi as they can by turning it into a competition.

They can challenge each other, test themselves to see if they can remember more each round, or let the parents battle the kids.

Pi Day Webquest

Kids will have a blast learning more about this mathematical constant by completing this pi quest.

PI DAY PROJECT IDEAS

Don’t limit your study of this concept to math class. These projects make it easy to make this never ending number the star of other subject areas as well.

With these fun ideas, it’s easy to get kids excited about Pi.

Any links in this post may be affiliate links. See my disclosure statement.

PI DAY ART

To celebrate, create some cool art together.

• This pointillism circular project is incredibly simple, but looks impressive when finished. All you need is q-tips, paint, and black construction paper to create the circle pattern.
• Fill a piece of paper with colorful dots that correspond to the digits in pi, and then systematically connect them to create a circle full of colorful lines.
• A classic math related creative project is pi skyline art. It’s an excellent way for kids to visualize this impressive number. For this, you’ll need some colored pencils and graph paper. Everyone will love creating their own math cities based on the numbers of pi.

Pi Day Resources

Acrylic PaintConstruction PaperMulticolor PencilsGraph Paper

 

Creative Writing Using pi

Use math as the inspiration for your language arts lessons by completing a creative writing activity.

• Encourage your tweens to write a pi story by using the numbers as their prompt. Each word will have the same number of letters as each number in pi.
• Older kids will have a lot of fun with this twist on a classic poetry exercise. They can use the digits to create their own Pi related haiku, also known as a pi-ku.

Pi Day Celebration Ideas

As part of your celebration on March 14th, take time to eat some treats and read interesting books.

PI DAY TREATS

Tweens and teens love to eat, so make some yummy dishes together. These three will be favorites of any Pi Day celebrations.

Bake a Pie

Naturally, the first thing you think about serving is pie, so head into the kitchen with your kids and make an apple pie or cherry pie.

We made these adorable mini cherry pies. They were simple to make and delicious!

If you want to go all out, consider buying a Pi shaped pie pan and make a full-size pie for dessert.

Stuffed Dessert Rounds

Round dessert pockets are a great way to honor the circle.

We changed this recipe to make our own delicious peanut butter and chocolate pockets.

All we did was stuff ours with creamy peanut butter and chocolate chips instead of strawberries, since that’s what we had in our pantry.

We also used packaged dough and skipped the stick.

These yummy desserts are simple for older kids to put together, so you can definitely make some for your celebration.

Pizza Pie

Homemade pizza for lunch? Yes!

Instead of making traditional pizza, shape the dough into Pi or use toppings to make the design on a round pizza.

PI DAY BOOKS

There are a number of books you can read with your kids to learn more about the concept of pi and math in general. Here are a few that tweens will enjoy.

• The Joy of Pi will teach teens the history of Pi along with interesting trivia.
• Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi will take kids on a delightful medieval math adventure.
• Why Pi introduces readers to all kinds of fascinating math facts.

The Joy of PiSir Cumference and the Dragon of PiWhy Pi?

 

MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH GAMES

You don’t have to save the math fun for once a year. It’s easy to make it exciting by regularly adding some games into your lesson plans.

• Middle School Math Games
• Prime Climb
• Sumoku

As you can see, there are plenty of great ideas you can use to celebrate this math holiday, whether or not you’re a math enthusiast.

The best part is that older students and younger students can do these fun activities together.

They don’t take a ton of time, so you’ll have no trouble fitting them into your homeschooling day.

Which of these Pi Day Ideas are you most excited about?