On March 14th, students came together to celebrate Pi-day with maths games and challenges all throughout the 2nd and 3rd floor. Older grades “took care” of younger grades and prepared math based activities and games, some of which had candy or other sweets as rewards!
In room 333, a group of students were playing a combination of hangman mixed with math questions about pi. Although there was not too much excitement in this room yet, seeing as the activity was just only starting, students were listening intently to what was going on and waiting for them to get asked a question and in return be able to guess a letter of the word.
Students Gabriella C., Stella O. And Avigail S. agreed that the activity was very “relaxing” seeing as they could take a break from normal school work and engage in the game.
In room 332, there was more excitement bubbling amongst students. In this class, students had prepared a game of connect 4. Similarly to the hangman game in room 333, you could only get a chip for the connect 4 by answering a pi-related math question. Andre K., a student rocking the colour of his house, green for earth house, said that the activity was “very fun” as he laughed and played the game with his friends.
In the same room, another group of students were playing a different game, this time a game that the 10th graders invented themselves, which had to do with a spinner and pi-related math questions, which the students thoroughly enjoyed. It is so refreshing to see students taking such initiative and coming up with new games and ideas such as this.
In room 22, there was a different set up in comparison to the other classes. This room was set up in a fair-like way, with different students with each of their games on separate desks, waiting patiently for other students to pass by and play their game. One game in particular that I went to was a sort of ‘battleships’ game instead with math questions. Alexander E., one of the creators of this game said that not a lot of people had come to their stand yet, but they are waiting patiently for students to arrive. When asked how they created their game, he said that they used “sticks, paper and glue.” This was such a great idea and incredibly impressive of our students.
Nearing the end of the day a mother arrived to give out Pi- day cookies. The cookies were sugar cookies cut out in the shape of the pi symbol. The mother worked with her nanny and they made hundreds of individually wrapped cookies! On top of that, two students, Cristina MJ. and Jeannine H. were asked by Ms. Jain to make cookies for students that had dietary restrictions. Cristina made egg-free coconut chocolate balls, and Jeannine made dairy-free chocolate cookies.
Pi-day was such an incredible experience for both the younger students to play games and do some fun math, and for the grade 10s to better understand what it’s like to lead a class, and come up with new ideas. This was such an exciting initiative.
