Like most math teachers I love Pi Day! I mean, who doesn’t love a day where you eat pie and celebrate math?! I have always done a bunch of fun pi related activities with my students on Pi Day (you can read all about them and grab a Pi Day word problem freebie in this post from a couple of years ago), but the activities I usually do are geared towards 5th – 8th grade (pre-algebra) kids and aren’t really relevant to my Algebra I kids since area and circumference of circles are not in the Algebra curriculum.
So, I have set out to find ways to tie Pi Day into Algebra concepts and have come up with the following activities:
- Pi Day Literal Equations: Literal Equations are a topic I teach towards the beginning of the year in Algebra I. It is one of the harder concepts we do at the beginning of the year so I think Pi Day is the perfect time to revisit and review them. I made a worksheet with a bunch of Geometry formulas that involve pi to have my students solve for pi. I made it a bonus to see how many of the formulas students can identify. The first student/group to finish and the student who correctly identifies the most formulas get prizes! (Download the worksheet by clicking the image below).
- Systems of Pies: Have students work with a partner to write a system of equations about pies. Then have students walk around the room and solve each other’s systems of equations using the methods of their choosing.
- Pi Day Attack Review Game: Have each group draw a pie cut into 5 slices. Ask students review questions on ANY Algebra I topic. When a group gets an answer right, they can attack two different pies by “eating” a slice (coloring it in). The last pie with any slices remaining is the winner! (I wrote a detailed blog post about Attack here that you can read for a better explanation of the game and rules).
I hope this has given you some useful ideas for making Pi Day a success in your Algebra class! What other activities have you done that bring Pi Day into the Algebra I classroom?
Thanks for reading,
Christina
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Thanks this was great!