Pi Day and Einstein's Birthday

We had fun celebrating Pi Day last year, March 14th (3/14). March 14th is also Einstein's birthday!This year, Pi Day falls on Sunday. We're going to be on the road for part of the day, so I'm not sure how much we'll get to do. But, I have some ideas!

• 
  
  watch BrainPop video about Pi (it is currently featured, so it is free!)
• 
  
  watch BrainPop videos about Einstein and relativity
• 
  
  make your own round pizza, cookies or pie
• 
  
  check out the history of Pi and activites & links listed at Exploratorium
• 
  
  make Kandinsky-like circle art like over at "Blog, She Wrote"
• 
  
  read Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi by Cindy Neuschwander

Those are just a few ideas. And, I'll leave you with some Einstein quotes I've posted before:

I am neither especially clever nor especially gifted. I am only very, very curious.

Love is a better teacher than duty.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.

Information is not knowledge.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist.

They are wrong: it is character.

Albert Einstein Quotes

One of our museums just opened an exhibit about Albert Einstein. Now, I'm in the process of trying to find some books or some activities to do to learn about this amazing man. While searching, I ran across Why Homeschool's blog which had listed these quotes attributed to Einstein: (By the way, if you have any ideas... let me know, OK?)

"I am neither especially clever nor especially gifted. I am only very, very curious."


"Love is a better teacher than duty."


"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."


"Information is not knowledge."


"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."
 "Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character."

Preparing for Pi Day

As I mentioned earlier, Saturday is Pi Day (since 3.14 is March 14th). Here are some of our plans.

To start with, we will read Sir Comference and the Dragon of Pi by Cindy Neuschwander and Wayne Geehan. (We love this whole series of books!) Then, we will "discover pi" using this site. We'll also watch the BrainPop video about pi.

We will also be doing some circle art using compasses and this post by ArtSmart4Kids about artist Frank Stella.

We'll be on Spring Break (yeah!!) or I would probably do more. But, we will also possibly have pizza and make a giant cookie "cake" for dessert. (Alexandra doesn't care for pies.)

Hope you have fun on Pi Day! Oh, and remember it is Einstein's birthday, too!

Baby Ducks in December?

Two days ago, we stopped by a pond full of ducks to feed them some bread. One of our favorites is this type of duck with feathers sticking up in mass on the top of his head. We call him an "Einstein duck." I thought his feathers were that way because someone had been picking on him, but a naturalist told me that there are breeds that look like this. Unfortunately, I can't remember what he called them! (Does anyone know?)

We were also surprised to see this mama duck walking her babies down the street... in the middle of December! We also saw a different mama duck 2 days after our snow a couple of weeks ago. I'm glad these mamas know how to keep their eggs and babies warm!

Celebrate the 20th anniversary of Pi Day on 3/14

I've been browsing through blogs on the Learning in the Great Outdoors blog carnival and came across a great blog called Open Wide, Look Inside. It's a blog about "using poetry and children’s literature across the curriculum." The blogger, Tricia, announced that it's Pi Day tomorrow! (Get it? Pi is 3.14 and tomorrow is 3/14)

So, I thought Alexandra and I would "celebrate" Pi Day and learn about Pi, which I don't think we've ever discussed. As Tricia suggested, we will start by measuring some different sized cylinders (oatmeal box, canned fruit, etc) and then divide the circumference by the diameter. We will also read some of the books by Cindy Neuschwander, like Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi. I'm still reseraching, so I don't know what else we'll do for Pi Day, but I'll keep you posted.

Will you celebrate Pi Day with us? A "traditional" celebration includes eating pizza pie or a fruit pie. That might be our dinner and dessert. Yum!

By the way, March 14th is also Einstein's birthday!