Pi Day Fun in the Upper Elementary Classroom

Have you ever thought about celebrating Pi Day on March 14 (3/14)?  Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th because that day corresponds with the first three digits of Pi (and is coincidentally the birthday of Albert Einstein).

Although it is traditionally celebrated by many middle school and high school teachers, I have found that my students always have an amazing time learning about Pi even if they can't quite calculate it themselves yet!  Read on to see all of the things we do to celebrate Pi in the Upper Elementary Classroom!

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love. 

Wear Pi

One fun thing about holidays is dressing up to celebrate them.  Why should Pi Day be any different?

I bought this Pi-Day shirt from Amazon here.

My students were also able to wear Pi with these awesome temporary Pi Day tattoos.

Math Jokes  

I print out some of the math jokes in this post, " 36 Math Jokes to Get Every Nerd Through Pi Day", and we share them throughout the day.  My students LOVE them, even the cornier jokes! 

I usually give each student a joke and randomly call on them throughout the day to read them out loud to the class.

Pi Day Read Aloud

My favorite read aloud for Pi Day is Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi.  

The book is a math themed adventure where the title character, Sir Cumference is changed into a fire breathing dragon, and his son, Radius is on a quest to change him back.  In order to do this, he must solve a riddle where he discovers a math number that is the same for all circles - Pi!

After your read aloud, you can pass out these adorable Pi Day Bookmarks to your students to use in their own books!

How Many Digits Are in Pi?

My students were so fascinated by this Pi Measuring Tape.  It features the first 400 digits of Pi. They couldn't believe a number could be so long!  

Pi Day Book

We completed these adorable Pi Day books that taught us even more about Pi!

Pi Day Vocabulary

We learned a few Pi related vocabulary words!  

Let Them Eat Pie!    

What Pi Day Celebration would be complete without pie?  We had to end the day with some yummy apple pie!

Do you celebrate Pi Day in your classroom?  I'd love to hear about it!  Leave a comment below!

And... before you go, make sure to visit my Giveaways page to enter our weekly giveaway to win a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card!

 I would love to hear from you! ❤️

Have a question? Idea for a resource you might find helpful?

Be so kind and leave a comment below.

Weekly $25 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway February 25, 2019

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Descriptive Writing Mini-Lesson - Gary Hogg Author Visit

Do you wish your students wrote more descriptively?  Is their writing rather ho-hum and boring?  You might want to try this descriptive writing mini- lesson based on a recent Gary Hogg author visit.  You will be amazed at how descriptive their writing will be!

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

Our school was lucky enough to have an author visit from Gary Hogg.  In addition to his whole school assemblies, he also provided writer's workshops for some of our students.  You can get a brief taste of what he shared in this video below:

During the assembly, he mentioned to the students that they needed to use their author's voice.  I was so impressed with my students' author voices after this quick mini-lesson with Gary.

Gary told the students that authors think twice.  He further explained, sometimes authors use a word that is really a category, but it is not really descriptive.  Examples he gave for categories were ice-cream, dogs, and colors.  He told the students that authors looked back at their writing for categories and made them details instead.  Examples of details might be: mint chocolate ice cream, a feisty puppy, or sea foam green.

He had the students practice turning categories into details.  You can see a video of this below where he asks the students to give details about dogs.

Since his visit, I have been using this idea as a warm-up from time to time during writer's workshop to get the students really thinking about details.

After this little warm-up he told them that he was going to have them write for 5 minutes.  He had them close their eyes and think of a memory.  He reminded them to think in details rather than categories.  He played a really funky machine that made music as the students thought.  Then he had them put pencil to paper.

You can watch a video of a similar lesson here:

My students were amazed at how much they wrote in only 5 minutes (to be honest, so was I)!

When the 5 minutes were up, he had them draw a line underneath the writing that they had so far.  Then he told them that writers:

Write

Revise

Repeat

He asked them to go back into their writing to find places where they had categories and change them to details.  He told them to write "smart bubbles" below their writing with arrows pointing to where they wanted to add it to the writing.  

To get them really thinking, he asked questions such as:

What day?

Was it morning/afternoon/night?

What was the weather like?

What is your mom's name?

What words could you use to describe your mom.

Where were you at?

Here is an example of a student's writing after answering these questions.

My students were so engaged in revising!  How does this even happen?

Samples of my students' writing:

If you want to find more about Gary Hogg, check out his website and his YouTube page!

If you try this lesson in your classroom, I would love to see pictures!  

Please email me at kellys3ps@sbcglobal.net or tag me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter!

And... before you go, make sure to visit my Giveaways page to enter our weekly giveaway to win a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card!

 I would love to hear from you! ❤️

Have a question? Idea for a resource you might find helpful?

Be so kind and leave a comment below.

Weekly $25 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway February 18, 2019

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This Giveaway is Over!  Please visit our Giveaway page to enter our current giveaway.

$25 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway

Every week one lucky teacher gets to go on a Teachers pay Teachers shopping spree!  Will it be you this week?

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card 

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter.  Giveaway ends 2/25/19 and is open worldwide.  

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Things We Love Giveaway February 14, 2019

This Giveaway is Over!  Please visit our Giveaway page to enter our current giveaway.

We had such a blast sharing the things we love last year in honor of Valentine's Day, so we decided to do it again! 

Some of my blogging buddies and I have gotten together to give away teaching supplies that we LOVE!  

Check out all of our favorites and scroll down to enter to win ALL of them!

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

Mr. Sketch Markers are my absolute favorite for making anchor charts!  I love the bright colors - and the fact that they smell good doesn't hurt either.  My students also love when I use them to grade their papers!  I buy them on Amazon using Subscribe and Save to save money!

Flair pens are another favorite of mine for grading purposes.  I let students use them to revise their writing as well, because they love writing with them, so they always want to add details!

I do not know how I would live without my laminators.  Yes, that is plural! I have one at home and one at school and it is so convenient!

Even though I love my laminators, there are times when I need something quick and easy.  I love these dry erase pockets for being able to quickly re-use worksheets.  My students get extra practice, and I save time at the copier.

And speaking of dry erase, these are the absolute best dry erase markers out there!  My school buys a cheaper version, so I always stock up on my own, because they last so much longer! Again, I buy these on Amazon using Subscribe and Save.

Something about color makes everything better!  From boring worksheets to letters home, Astrobrights paper makes everything a little more fun!

Just like I don't like to compromise on my dry erase markers, I also don't like to compromise on the pencils we use in class.  Ticonderoga pencils are by far the best.  They sharpen so much easier than any of the others and they hold a point longer.

And last but not least, no teacher favorites list would be complete without Teachers pay Teachers! If you win this giveaway, you will also receive a $50 TpT gift card to spend however you like!

So, onto the giveaway...

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: Things We LOVE prize pack including: Mr. Sketch Markers, Flair Markers, Personal Laminator, Dry Erase Pockets, Dry Erase Markers, Astrobrights Paper, Ticonderoga Pencils, and a $50 Teachers pay Teachers gift card.

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher,  A Plus Kids, The Cozy Crafty Classroom, Sliding into 1st, The Fun Factory, Kelly McCown, The Craft of Teaching, Carla Hoff, Star Kids, TheBeezyTeacher, Learning Inspired, The Chocolate Teacher, Ms. K, Samson's Shoppe, Busy Little Bees, The Froggy Factory, Leah Popinski, Jackie Crews, Peas In ,A Pod, MM Bilingual, 180 Days of Reading, Sarah Griffin, and Mr L's Classroom.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 2/21/19 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!

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Weekly $25 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway February 11, 2019

Teacher Giveaway!

This Giveaway is Over!  Please visit our Giveaway page to enter our current giveaway.

$25 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway

Every week one lucky teacher gets to go on a Teachers pay Teachers shopping spree!  Will it be you this week?

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card 

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter.  Giveaway ends 2/18/19 and is open worldwide.  

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!

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Monthly $100 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway - February 2019

This Giveaway is Over!  Please visit our Giveaway page to enter our current giveaway.

$100 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway

Every month we spoil one lucky teacher gets to go on a Teachers pay Teachers shopping spree!  Will it be you this month?

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher, Teacherof20, It Happened In 3rd, 180 Days of Reading, The BeezyTeacher, Kim Heuer, Globe Trottin' Kids, Peas In A Pod, Reading and Writing Redhead, Catch My Products, Chocolate 4 Teachers, A Plus Kids, It's a Teacher Thing, Mrs Wenning's Classroom, Dreams Teach, The Chocolate Teacher, LIVIN' IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER, Walk with Me a Second, Mickey's Place, and Tanya G Marshall The Butterfly Teacher.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter.  Giveaway ends 2/13/19 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers! 

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