Pi Day: Circle Hunt!

Just in time for your Pi Day celebration! I put the beginning of this activity together with a younger audience in mind (Grades 1-3) but also included some spreadsheet love for 4th and 5th graders.

When I last did this activity (in a joint operation with Lacosta way back when) it was Anthony Bizardie who made "the discovery" about the magical 3.14.

Who will your Master Conjecturer be???


Pi Day: Circle Hunt! from (Chris) on Vimeo.

Why Pi?

I recently attended an excellent Webinar, Slices of Pi, with Key Curriculum Press. In one of the activities, we investigated Pi in a rather unusual way: by looking at the ratio 22/7.

In honor of the upcoming Pi Day celebrations, I thought I'd share this with you and your students. Very interesting!

Pi Flower from (Chris) on Vimeo.

Work Ethic Rubric

Are you using a menu or workshop format in your math block? Working levels are designed to help raise students' awareness of their own behavior, to make expectations more explicit, and to give focus to discussions about what it means to work hard.

Students of all ages must be given opportunities to discuss questions like,

"What does it look like to work hard?"

"What does it look like to be responsible? What will we see? What will we hear?"

"How will we know when we're working hard?"

A working levels rubric gives students more information about what is expected and the information they need to improve.

Work Ethic Rubric

(from Working Levels by Kathy McGrath)

Level 4

• Productive
• Respectful
• Collaborates with Others
• Craftsmanship

Level 3

• Productive
• Respectful

Level 2

• Works when Reminded

Level 1

• Not Working

Level 0

• Interfering with Other's Work