Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The One With The Pi Day Celebration

My friend, Miranda, who designed my blog for me posted on my fb page the other day to let me know this blog had been pinned. Ya'll my chin hit the floor. I was beyond touched that someone found this little site worth pinning. I never would have guessed it. I also never would have imagined I'd have so many people who wanted to read about what goes on in my classroom. It is very humbling. I just had to take a moment and say thank you!

Now on to Pi Day. I'm sure you know that Pi Day is celebrated on 3.14, meaning next Wednesday. I had never heard of celebrting Pi Day until I was doing my internship in college. The school where I was student teaching celebrated. Unfortunately the only thing I remember them doing is having a contest among the students to see who could memorize the most digits of pi. The winner got to throw a pie in the principal's face.

This is my 2nd year teaching Math. Now that I'm a teeny tiny bit more comfortable in the content area, I thought it would be fun to celebrate Pi Day with my students this year. And what perfect timing. One last fun day before we start cramming for the Benchmark tests in April.

I began doing some research for ideas a couple of months ago. I reached out to the other 7th grade teachers and asked if they'd be willing to do something related to Pi in their classes that day.

I'm still not 100% sure what we are going to do in Math. How sad is that? My general idea is that I will gather some real life circular objects....ritz crackers, buttons, etc and have students measure the objects and then calculate the circumference and area. I'm open to suggestions for some interesting objects.

I also teach Science along side a co-worker. We are going to make Pi Bracelets. Each number will be represented by a color. For example 3 will be blue, 1 will be red, and so forth. We'll probably have them do 10-15 numbers. I still need to make a sample to get an idea of the number of beads we'll need to use.

Ed Helper currently as a reading passage about the history of Pi with some multiple choice questions. It's perfect for history class.

In English class they are writing a story or poem based on Pi. For a story the first word is three letters, the second one letter, the third four letters and so on. For a poem the first line is three words, second line is one word, and so on.

I think they are going to enjoy the day. At least I hope they do.

There are some other things I'm doing to livin' up the day. My principal has agreed to let us go outside during the last class of the day. This is when the winner of our competition will get to throw a pie in her face. She has also been so nice as to let me buy mini individual pies for all the students to eat and enjoy outside.

To spruce up the classroom a bit, I made a banner to hang across my white board.






If you want your own sign, I'd be happy to customize one for you. They are $15 and can be purchased in my etsy store. I can do any colors, shape, or saying that you'd like. My computer isn't cooperating tonight. I can't seem to upload a listing for the banner. If you want one, email me and I'll go ahead and get started making it. Hopefully I'll be able to list them soon.


Speaking of etsy, I found the cutest earrings on there for our celebration. If you want a pair of earrings I bought them from this store.

I'm making a special shirt for the day as well, but it isn't quite ready to share yet. I promise to share soon though. :)


Hopefully my students will enjoy the day. They seem to be getting excited about it.


I'll let you know how it all goes.
What are you doing for Pi Day?

3 comments:

  1. I certainly can not imagine that your blog hasn't been pinned before now! It is wonderful! I have gained quite a few good ideas from it! I would like to request two things from you. I would love to have a copy of the M&M observation lab sheet. Great Activity! Will go well with the Gummy Bear lab I do. And, please let me know where you go the Pi earrings. The math teacher on my team would love those. I can see her wearing them now! Thanks! And keep up the good work! Your students are a lucky bunch. My email is melissa.wells@knoxschools.org. Happy Teaching! Melissa Wells PS I love whole brain teaching, too!

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  2. Hi Mrs. Weaver:

    Just wanted you to know I linked my Pi Day Celebration post to your site and the earrings you pictured.
    And, yes, I bought them too (I chose cherry. So cute!)
    http://joyin6th.blogspot.com/2012/03/celebrating-pi-day.html

    Happy Weekend!

    Kim
    Finding JOY in 6th Grade

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