This year is a very special pi day with the most number of digits being possible this Saturday, March 14 at 9:26:53! (3.14 15 926 53)
To celebrate this special day, we will post classroom activities you could use on Friday to have some fun with your students too! At the bottom of each post will be a link to a pdf of the game or activity for you to use.
Today’s suggested activity:
Pi Day Activities: Duck, Duck, Goose, Shark
This is a variation of that favourite childhood game. The addition of the role of the shark allows students to recognize that three times the diameter of the circle is approximately equal to the circumference of the circle, since three is an approximation for p.
- A group of players sit in a circle, facing inward, while another player, the ‘picker’ (a.k.a. the ‘fox’), walks around tapping or pointing to each player in turn, calling each a ‘duck’ until finally picking one to be a ‘goose’ .
- Traditionally, the ‘goose’ then rises and chases and tries to tag the ‘picker’, while the ‘picker’ tries to return to and sit where the ‘goose’ had been sitting.
- The Pi Day twist is that when the ‘goose’ rises he/she must look across the diameter of the circle and call out the ‘shark’.
- The ‘goose’ and the ‘picker’ race in opposite directions around the circumference of the circle.
- The ‘shark’ must race across the diameter of the circle 3 times. Each time the ‘shark’ makes it across the diameter of the circle they touch the ground.
- There are now two empty spots and three players racing for them.
- The ‘goose’ and the ‘picker’ must each run the complete circumference before the one who did not make it back to the first empty spot can try to beat the ‘shark’ back to final empty spot.
- Whoever, is left standing without a spot, whether it is the ‘picker’, the ‘goose’ or the ‘shark’, becomes the ‘picker’ and the game begins again.