March 14th is National Pi Day, and even your children are too young to fully understand the meaning of Pi, it’s still a fun day to play with circles. Involve the kids and make circle art, eat circle foods and embrace this super fun shape! Here are some easy, low prep (we love that!) activities that you can do with your kids to celebrate.
Gather some lids, cups, circular containers and paint. Dip the circular objects in the paint and “stamp” on paper. This can double as a science lab about colors – try using red, yellow, and blue paint. Experiment with twisting the circles as you stamp or smearing them!
You can do this two ways, either as shown below (number of beads equals digit value) or assign a different digit to each bead color you have. For example, you could assign 0 to the white beads, 1 to the red beads, etc. If you have more time on your hands, you can dye pasta and make a colorful necklace.
Pizza might just be the most delicious “Pi” out there. I love that math can be tasty too! Gather the kids and make homemade pizza with all their favorite toppings. Pizza is usually cut across the pizza’s diameter, so you can ask the kids to estimate the diameter. Here is a recipe for homemade pizza dough:
- 1 pkg dry, active yeast (equivalent of 8g or .25 ounces or 2.25 tsp)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
- 2.5 cups bread flour (we use all-purpose flour)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
1. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.
2. In large bowl, stir yeast and sugar into the warm water and let it sit for 5-10 minutes until it looks creamy.
3. When yeast is frothy, add flour, salt and oil, and stir until well mixed. It will be loose and kind of messy looking. That’s ok. No need to form a smooth ball or anything.
4. Let it rest for 5 minutes.
5. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and roll or pat into one 12″ crust or 4 individual crusts.
6. Transfer to a pizza stone or a lightly oiled pan
Now have the kids pour a little pizza sauce on to each crust and spread it around with the back of a spoon. Top with a handful of mozzarella cheese and whatever else you fancy.
Bake at 450 for 15-20 minutes (large pizza) or 10-15 minutes (smaller pizzas). ENJOY!
Cut out circles of various sizes and colors from construction paper and then have younger children sort them according to size. Start with the largest on the bottom and gradually layer the circles from largest to smallest. They can then use the cut out circles make art by gluing them on to paper.
