Cutting Pi Discovery Activity

This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.

Looking for a fun way for students to discover the mathematical meaning of pi on Pi Day? Check out this cutting pi activity that involves scissors, string, and circular objects from around your classroom.

First hour, we did a cutting pi activity.

Smartboard file with instructions for Cutting Pi Discovery Activity. .

Students looked around the room to find circular objects to trace.

student tracing circular container for Cutting Pi Discovery Activity.

student work on Cutting Pi Discovery Activity.

student tracing glue stick for Cutting Pi Discovery Activity.

Then, they cut a piece of string equal to the circumference of their circle.

student wrapping string around circle during Cutting Pi Discovery Activity.

Next, they stretched the string across the diameter of their circle and cut it. Repeat. Repeat. Wait, my string now only goes across 14% of the diameter. Well, that’s what was supposed to happen. My students didn’t do the best job of measuring and cutting, so only one group ended up achieving pi pieces of string in the end.

I borrowed this activity from Exploratorium.