7 Classroom Resources for Pi Day

Pi Day is coming on March 14, and the annual celebration offers a great opportunity for students to explore pi and math-related concepts. There are plenty of great teaching resources online to help your class celebrate Pi Day, so we thought we’d help you sort through them all.

Here are a few of our favorites from around the web, starting with an interesting music-related pi lesson, “What Pi Sounds Like,” which was produced by musician Michael Blake. This video is a fun resource that can help students of all ages get excited about pi. Happy Pi Day!

• San Francisco Exploratorium Pi Day Activities: Without the Exploratorium, official Pi Day celebrations might never have happened. In 1988, Exploratorium physicist Larry Shaw started the tradition, and it was recognized by Congress in 2009. The Exploratorium highlights some great hands-on activities, with links to useful pi-related resources.
• Learning Resources From PiDay.org: PiDay.org is a wonderful source for interesting activities, news items, and videos related to pi. Be sure to check out the site’s listing of Pi Day videos, as well as the outside links.
• Happy Pi Day, TeachPi.org: TeachPi hosts a trove of Pi Day resources, featuring fun classroom activities, Pi Day–inspired music, and other fun learning ideas. There’s plenty here to keep students engaged and learning on March 14. Check out the activities section for a bunch of great learning ideas.
• Scholastic Pi Day Teaching Ideas: Scholastic produced this list of plans for three grade spans: preschool–grade 1, grades 2–3, and grades 4–6. The page features interesting information about the history of pi, ideas for activities, and a link to a web application for exploring the music of pi. Another great Scholastic resource is “Writing With Pi.”
• PBS LearningMedia Pi-Related Resources: PBS LearningMedia features a great collection of geometry lessons related to pi. These aren’t specifically for Pi Day, but they’re especially relevant on March 14. Plus, for more math and pi-themed lessons, OER Commons has curated more than 100 resources from a variety of sources.
• TeachersFirst’s Pi Day Resources: TeachersFirst offers this great roundup of pi-themed lessons and resources from around the web, focused primarily on high school. Included in the collection are some general math resources, like Simpsons Math.
• Pi-Related Resources, Joy of Pi: Author David Blatner is a pi fanatic, and his website Joy of Pi features tons of useful and interesting information. Included on the resources page are links to sites on the history of pi, how to calculate pi, and mysteries about the number.

Quick Reads on Pi

From its history to its occurrence in everyday life, pi is an endlessly fascinating subject. Here’s a short list of interesting, insightful, and just plain entertaining reads on the subject.

• Scientific American: What Is Pi, and How Did It Originate?
• Visually: Infographic: Visualizing Pi
• The New York Times: The Pi Day of the Century
• The New Yorker: Why Pi Matters
• CNN: On Pi Day, One Number ‘Reeks’ of Mystery
• NPR: Pi Day Isn’t Just Magical, It’s Mathematics. And There’s Pie!