What a fun day we had!! We started off discussing anything and everything the kids knew about Pi. There were LOTS of questions and I asked them to be patient as all would be revealed throughout the day! Then we made discoveries using a flour tortilla, a ruler, and a string...and a calculator! The kids measured the circumference...the diameter...divided the circumference of their tortilla, by the diameter of their tortilla...and found an answer. Then they had to compare their findings with other groups in the class. Lastly, they had to find a different round object and repeat the same steps...we took all of that data and made a chart noticing similarities each time we divided the circumference by the diameter. But we also noticed that our measurements were never EXACTLY the same...we came to realize that a) we are third graders and b) our measurements were all to the nearest 1/4 inch which altered the exactness of our calculations...it was a fantastic morning full of discoveries and AHA! moments!!
.JPG)
After lunch we read the book
Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi...a fantastic story about
Sir Cumference's son
Radius, his mother
Lady Di of Ameter and their adventures trying to unravel clues that would help turn Sir Cumference back into himself...he had become a dragon. At one point a PIE is used to help Radius discover the clue that will help him save his dad! This was a fun tale, but it also really reinforced everything we had done that morning.
After the story, the kids were given about 50 digits of Pi and asked to analyze the first 25 digits. They filled out a frequency table of the digits 0-9, and then used a line plot to display their findings...all while Ms. Willett and I were serving PIE..a fun way to celebrate the end of our PI Day!
As we were packing up, I asked the kids what they had learned that day...their enthusiastic answers full of facts about Pi were music to a teacher's ears. I LOVE Pi Day!!
