It’s time to start thinking about Pi Day! If you’re not familiar with it, Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 because 3, 1, and 4 are the first three digits of the number Pi. Math and science teachers started marking this date in 2009 and it has grown in popularity and scope ever since.

Why shouldn’t world language teachers have a little fun with Pi too? The affective filter is strongly related to how much the learner enjoys the study of the language and fun competitions like this can boost positive emotions which in turn drive attention and memory.

Here’s the Pi Day challenge: Memorize as many digits of Pi as you can in the target language. My students in both Latin and Spanish enjoy the challenge. The record so far is 100 digits memorized in the target language. No notes.

Here is a handout for Pi Day in Spanish classes.

Here is the handout for Pi Day in Latin classes.

50 digits is common. I ask students to memorize at least 20 digits, and most do. It is not for a grade, just for pride and for fun. But I also give mini pies to those that memorize at least 20 digits. The high score in each class gets a full size pie. It doesn’t take much class time because I give them the handouts linked above and students do the memorizing outside of class. We just listen to the contestants… and then we eat pie!

Is this practical? Helpful? Useful for fluency in any way? No, not much. But it is fun and students get bragging rights for a year—that’s got to be worth something.

Last year, four younger siblings (ages 7, 7, 5, and 4) showed up at my classroom door on Pi Day. Each of them said at least 10 digits of Pi. They picked up those words just listening to their older brothers and sisters as they practiced saying them around the house. They got pies too. It’s a fun way to build goodwill and visibility for your language program. Think about it…