Pre Pi Day Celebration

With March 14th occurring on a Saturday this year, the 5th graders at Jessie Beck celebrated the day one day early. Beginning with a story book which relates characters to the geometric terms of diameter, radius, and circumference, students now how something to help them remember the differences between the three. We moved on to reading a short paper on the history of the number pi. Measuring circumference and the diameter of pies, they realized that the circumference in about 3 times that of the diameter. In fact, compiling all of our class data, we realized it is quite close to 3.14 times the diameter. Once we realized this, we could then use pi in formulas to calculate circumference and area of circles. The goal here is not to be 100% proficient, but instead to instill in each student that pi relates to circles and that it is 3.14. We then, of course, ate some pie. Next, in PE we worked off the calories of the pie! The day concluded with a optional pi memorization challenge. Each student was given the first 500 digits of pi on Monday. All four classes met outside to cheer on each participant who recited as many digits of pi as they could. This year, we had the all time record at our school of pi broken, by Alyssa, who recited the first 208 digits. Grace from our room placed fourth with 53 digits.