Pi Day Fun

To celebrate Pi Day (3/14) at Saklan, the middle school students taught a special lesson to the third and fourth graders. Students worked together in pairs to measure the diameter and then the circumference of two cookies. They then calculated their own pi by making the ratio of circumference over diameter. No one got exactly 3.141569, but some groups came very close! The students had a group discussion about their results and concluded that two of the reasons they may not have gotten exactly 3.141569 was because the cookies weren’t perfectly round and using a string to calculate circumference might have led to errors.

To close the lesson, the pairs made memory mnemonics to help them remember the first ten digits. If they had extra time, they worked on writing a Pi-ku. These are like Haikus, but instead of only three lines with the syllable pattern 5-7-5 they can go on infinitely (or at least 31 lines) that follow the pattern of.

Here’s one example:

Saklan is                  – 3

Fun!                          – 1

Let’s eat a treat       -4

Yum!                          -1

Math is delicious.   -5

We can’t wait to celebrate again next March!

#SaklanHandsOn