by Jess Cropsey
Our entertainment options are more limited here (which I actually love) -- play outside, watch a movie, ride a bike, read a book, play a game, do an arts/craft project, ... There are no museums, playgrounds, libraries, shopping malls or amusement/water parks. In fact, many of the moms and kids can go several months without ever getting into a vehicle. So, we often go big when it comes to small holiday celebrations. You know, to spice things up a little bit!
As a math educator, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to celebrate Pi Day on Thursday, March 14th (which also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday). My 6th-7th grade math class looked at the frequency in which digits appear in Pi.
My 2nd grade class read Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi and then completed an exploration activity similar to the one by the young boy (named Radius) in the story. They discovered that a little more than 3 pipe cleaners (cut to the size of the diameter of the circle) were needed to go all the way around a circle.
Math often gets a bad rap and many people have negative experiences with math class in school, so it was delightful to see all of the kids so excited about Pi Day. While we were stuffing our faces with "pie", we listened to several students who had worked on memorizing the digits of pi. The prize-winning student memorized the first 100 digits! Incredible.
While these kids will never need to know more than the first 3 digits of pi, the lessons learned from setting a goal and seeking to achieve it, exercising their brain power, and wondering at the beauty & order of God's creation (even evident in mathematics) are all life-long.
Our entertainment options are more limited here (which I actually love) -- play outside, watch a movie, ride a bike, read a book, play a game, do an arts/craft project, ... There are no museums, playgrounds, libraries, shopping malls or amusement/water parks. In fact, many of the moms and kids can go several months without ever getting into a vehicle. So, we often go big when it comes to small holiday celebrations. You know, to spice things up a little bit!
As a math educator, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to celebrate Pi Day on Thursday, March 14th (which also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday). My 6th-7th grade math class looked at the frequency in which digits appear in Pi.
My 2nd grade class read Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi and then completed an exploration activity similar to the one by the young boy (named Radius) in the story. They discovered that a little more than 3 pipe cleaners (cut to the size of the diameter of the circle) were needed to go all the way around a circle.
Both classes also contributed to a paper chain representing the first 100 digits of Pi, with each color representing a specific digit.
During the lunch hour, we had a school-wide party. In groups, kids measured the circumference and diameter of some of the yummy food contributed by the moms (pizzas, a giant circle cookie, quiches, pies) as well as circular objects in the room.
Of course, I made them record their data and do some number crunching to discover the relationship between the circumference and diameter of a variety of circles before they could eat! Talk about motivation...
1 comment:
This is so fun, Jess! Love that you embrace celebrating! We're "celebrators" too :)
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