Pi Day for Older Kids

I recently shared a few ideas for celebrating Pi Day with younger kids, but of course it’s also fun to do Pi Day with kids who are old enough to know what pi actually is.

You could have a pie making (or eating!) contest with older kids to celebrate, or have them write about their favorite kind of pie (pizza or otherwise).

Since numerical pi is kind of a code, you can make bracelets or beaded projects using the numbers of pi with beads in different colors to correspond to each number (so every 1 is green, every 2 is blue, for example) or make it simpler with one color for odd numbers and one for even numbers. Both are shown in this activity from Pink Stripey Socks.

You could also do the same color with different numbers of beads for each digit, for example you start with three beads of one color, then one of a different color, then four of another color and so on. Our Family Code has an example of this done in a necklace to 50 digits.

That post has more great pi related ideas you can do, including a color wheel activity, a graphing mosaic, perler bead suncatchers and more.

Rock Your Homeschool has a good collection of Pi Day printables for older kids, which includes a word search, coloring pages, a pie baking math activity, a page of pies to measure and a chart for measuring your own circular things, among other activities.

Finally, try your hand at some Pi-lish! This isn’t a real language but a way of writing or speaking where the words correspond to the digit in pi. So a sentence written in Pi-lish would start with a three-letter word, then a one-letter word, then four, then one, then five and so on. Royal Baloo has printables for practicing your Pi-lish and ultimately writing a poem in this style.

[Photo: Pink Stripey Socks.]

Last month I shared a collection of beach crafts that used items from the beach like seashells and sand. This month’s collection is all about beach animals and things you might see at the beach that don’t require beachy materials to make. In fact you’ve probably got what you need to make most of these beach crafts in your house already.

How about paper plates? With a paper plate you can make this cute watercolor seashell from The Educator’s Spin on It, or an adorable seagull like this one from Glued to My Crafts.

Add some white beans and you can make paper plate sand dollars like Crafts by Amanda. Or use a paper plate as a frame for a sweet beach scene like this crab and turtle one from Artsy Craftsy Mom, which includes a downloadable template and instructions to make it super easy.

Or grab a paper plate and some bubble wrap to make a jellyfish like this one from Happy Toddler Playtime. If you have paper bowls instead of plates, you can also make a jellyfish from one of those, like Natural Beach Living did.

Use your stash of craft sticks and googly eyes to make crabs, fish, sharks and more with this craft idea from The Keeper of the Cheerios.

I love this little crab made with a cardboard tube from Hunny I’m Home. With this same idea I’ll bet you could make lots of different creatures.

Grab some construction paper to make the loopy tentacles on this watercolor jellyfish from Craftsy Hacks. Or make a stained glass jellyfish like this one from Life Anchored.

Make easy puffy paint to make these fun fluffy starfish from I Heart Crafty Things, or use cupcake liners to make cute little crabs (also from I Heart Crafty Things).

Turn an old pool noodle into some super cute fish with this tutorial from Happy Toddler Playtime.

And if you’ve got some leftover yarn lying around, make pompoms and turn them into turtles like these from Craftsy Hacks. (And check out my post on different ways to make pompoms if you need a refresher!)

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