Birchwood Intermediate School celebrated Pi Day 2026 by taking the lessons about this complicated math concept outside the classrooms, and even outside of the school building! Under the guidance of Birchwood’s Math Coach, Elizabeth Correll, fifth-grade students gathered in the “all-purpose room” turning it into a big mathematics lab to conduct group experiments to better understand this amazing equation.  

 

Pi, or π, is the mathematical constant representing the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. No matter how big or small a circle is, if you divide the circumference by the diameter, you will always get the same number: approximately 3.14. So on March 14th - 3/14 - schools celebrate Pi Day! Since the 14th was on a Saturday this year, schools celebrated on March 13th. 

 

Why is pi special? Pi is an irrational number, meaning its decimals go on forever without ever repeating a pattern. Computers have recently calculated pi to 314 trillion digits!

 

Rather than simply listening to a lecture, students got a hands-on opportunity to learn the "derivation of pi." Using various circular objects–including a frisbee, a hula hoop, and a lunchroom table–the students measured circumferences and diameters to discover the mathematical constant for themselves.

 

“This is a day to really make math memorable for the kids by giving them a hands-on experience. They’re working collaboratively. They were drawing with their hands. So it's  multisensory. If kids can see the number and they're part of it, it'll be part of their memory,” explained Ms. Correll, who has been with the school for 28 years.

 

The fifth graders then went outside to the front of the school for the highlight of the celebration: the creation of a human pi decimal line with each student holding up a numeral card representing each digit of the infinite number. By having the entire fifth grade become part of the number, Ms. Correll hoped to create a lasting mental image for the students. A drone camera captured the line-up. It stretched from one end of the bus semicircle to the other until they ran out of students to represent the never-ending decimal places.

The celebration wasn't just about formulas; it was also a delicious day full of round foods. Students started their morning with green bagels and enjoyed pizza for lunch. The event was made even sweeter by Entenmann’s, which donated more than 300 pies for the fourth year in a row.

 

“This is where the thinking comes alive,” said Ms. Correll. “They're figuring it out on their own, and it's magical. My mission as an educator is to create a community of thinkers, and I believe that math is the pathway to thinking. And I think that if you can think about math, you can think about anything.” 

 

Thanks to Birchwood’s Math Coach, Ms. Elizabeth Correll, for making math lessons so much fun! And thanks to Whitman alum John Andreoni for helping us capture our human pi decimal line with his amazing drone skills! 

 

 

 Students got a hands-on opportunity to learn the "derivation of pi" in Birchwood’s all-purpose room. Using various circular objects–including a frisbee, a hula hoop, and a lunchroom table–the students measured circumferences and diameters to discover the mathematical constant for themselves.

 

 

The fifth graders went outside to the front of the school for the highlight of the celebration: the creation of a human pi decimal line with each student holding up a numeral card representing each digit of the infinite number.