Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Happy Pi Day!

In middle school, my math teacher introduced our class to the concept of Pi Day - a celebration of the number pi on March fourteenth (since 3.14 is the closest decimal approximation of pi). She taught us a song to help us memorize several digits of the number, and our whole class sang it on the morning announcements that day. To this day, I still remember the chorus and first verse of that song. And considering that last year my husband (a high school math teacher) brought home some leftover pie from his own school's Pi Day festivities, I'd say the tradition of Pi Day is still alive and well.

But celebrations of pi (or pie) should not be limited to K-12 schools - or just your nerdy friends. After all, who would deny an invitation to a delicious pie party?

There are several things you could plan for your Pi Day event. The obvious ideas are, of course, various pie-themed contests: baking contests, decorating contests, pie-throwing contests (whether that's pie-in-the-face or long distance pie throwing is up to you), pie eating contests (miniature, individual-sized pies made in muffin tins would be great for this), or even pie architecture contests. If the cake shops featured on channels like TLC can carve sculptures out of cake, why couldn't you do something similar with pie? See who can stake the most pies on top of each other in a leaning-tower-of-pie contest, or get creative and carve pie-castles out of gooey filling and structural crust.

If you want to avoid all that fun-but-messy competition, there are other options, too. Have everyone bring in a pie for a pie potluck, or have a silent auction in a support of your favorite charity, where all of your guests can bid on the pies that they think look the most delicious.

Of course, you can also feature other round foods and activities at your Pi Party - pi is applicable to all circles, after all. Have a pizza pie cook-off, or bake fresh, homemade donuts. Play Twister. Sit in a circle and relive your childhood with games like musical chairs or duck-duck-goose - or your adolescence, with games like spin-the-bottle or truth or dare. Make a Settlers of Catan board out of miniature pies or other round foods. Sit around a bonfire. And, naturally, decorate your party with lots of circles and polka dots. :)

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