Pi Day Activities for Little Kids

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 (because the date is 3.14, the beginning of the number for pi), and it’s a great time for kids of all ages to craft with circles, play with numbers, and maybe even eat some actual pie.

If your kids are younger but you still want to have some fun with this holiday, read on. (Activities for older kids to come!)

To introduce the idea of pi to younger kids, explain that it’s a number that expresses the relationship between a circle’s diameter (the measurement across the center from edge to edge) and its circumference (the measurement of the outside edge, all the way around).

Pi is an infinite number and the same digit never repeats (meaning there are, for example, never two 3s in a row).

Since pi is about circles you can make circle prints, cut our circles, use circles in art projects, eat round snacks. Go on a circle hunt! Play ring around the Rosie, or follow the leader in a circle. So many easy ideas.

Pieces by Polly talks about making fraction plates, repeating patterns with pies, making art with circles and making tiny snack pies.

Tinker Lab has a cute pi day printable art challenge. Can you use three colors to decorate the grids with different patterns in 14 minutes?

Royal Baloo has a fun printable pi board game where you collect cards with the goal of getting as many digits of pi as you can.

Teach Beside Me has a printable pi puzzle that goes together to show 25 digits of pi. It’s not as easy as it sounds because the digits repeat.

And this free pi poster from Cindy Lam at Teachers Pay Teachers can be filled out with one child or a whole classroom and includes fun things like listing your favorite thing that’s a circle or words that have the letters pi in them.

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Thanksgiving Math Activities

One of my favorite things in the little kid classrooms my daughter was in when she was younger (besides pretend play) was the science center. This space pretty much always had magnifying glasses (and probably binoculars because it was in front of a window), tweezers and other basic tools, but the content of the things they were studying would change every so often.

It might be the table was covered with rocks. Or flowers the kids picked when they were outside. Or fall leaves. Once they had tadpoles harvested from a puddle outside.

Because there’s so much to explore when you’re little, the ideas for science tables are almost endless. It could be about any kind of animal you’re learning about in class, the weather, parts of a plant, space, holiday related activities like weighing and measuring pumpkins, it goes on and on. If you’re doing this at home (or even in a classroom) you can let the interests of the child/children drive what’s on the table and how often it changes.

If you need help with what to put on your science table, or if you’re wondering why having one is a great idea, at home or in the classroom, check out this post from Little Bins for Little Hands.

They happen to have a whole series of printables for science centers that you can buy, but there’s also a free printable of basic science tools in this post, and it’s full of good information on the hows and whys of science tables, even if you don’t buy anything.

The article notes there are all sorts of great things kids learn at science tables in preschool, including a basic understanding of science tools and the scientific method, ways of measuring and classifying things, observation, problem solving, teamwork and more. Lots of these skills have applications outside of science, as they can also help improve vocabulary, critical thinking skills and more.

Check out the post for more great information on science tables and why you might want to set one up today. Have you ever had a science table in the classroom or at home? I’d love to hear about it!

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