In our house, we love to celebrate. Holidays are kind of my thing. And I especially love celebrating the smaller holidays. Give me Dr. Seuss’ birthday or Presidents Day over Thanksgiving any time. But my very favorite of all the days?

Pi Day.

Pi Day is a nerd’s dream. While I try to claim myself as a liberal arts person, the fact is me + numbers = true love. We just “get” each other. You know what I do when I’m having a really bad day? Balance our budget. I kid you not. So, Pi Day, a day devoted to the mathematical symbol π, is kind of amazing in my nerdy little world. Pi Day occurs on March 14 of every year, because the beginning of Pi is 3.14.

What is Pi?

Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter. So for any circle, no matter how big or small, you can divide the distance around it (the circumference) by the distance through the middle of the circle (a line passing through the middle of the circle with the endpoints at the circle; the diameter) and you will get always get Pi. In fraction form, it’s *about* 22/7. In decimal form, it never ends and never repeats (an irrational number!), but the first few digits are 3.1415926535. If you want to learn the numbers even higher, this site offers a great explanation of what Pi is, how it’s used, and will give you Pi up to the first THOUSAND digits. http://www.math.com/tables/constants/pi.htm

As you might notice, this year is particularly special because we are in the year 2015, and the next two digits after 3.14 is 15! That means this is the best Pi Day of the century! We are celebrating not just 3.14, but 3.1415. Take it a step further and begin your celebration at 9:26 a.m., and you are GOLDEN.

My kids have been a little young to really “get” the significance as Pi for its mathematical properties, but they love a good celebration as much as their mom, so we typically celebrate by making pizza pi and some sort of pie for dessert. Since my older son doesn’t like fruit pies, we generally do a pudding pi. Of course, these are both decorated with the Pi symbol. I usually give them a little explanation of what Pi day means and we play with some of the numbers, but we haven’t gone into a lot of detail about what it really is. Until this year!

Here’s a few of the great activities and books I’ve found the incorporate into your Pi Day celebration! Have fun!

Get artsy with this Pi Skyline

Who doesn’t love bubbles? Find the circumference of a bubble by multiplying its diameter by pi!

Read Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi, then check out these free work pages to go with it.

For middle schoolers, or advanced late elementary, check out these free Pi Day printables.

And for the youngers, here’s a great list of activities to incorporate some Pi learning into your pi eating.

And, if you really want to embarrass your children, make up your own lyrics to go along with Rebecca Black’s infamous hit, “Friday.” That’s right, it’s Pi Day, Pi day, gotta get down on Pi Day!

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