How many digits of  Pi can your students memorize in the target language ?

Is this practical?   Helpful for vocabulary growth?   Useful for fluency in any way?   No, not really.   But… 

What is pi? And a number of other things to know | CNN1) it is a fun challenge, and  2) if students are not fluent with the numbers 0-9 yet, memorizing several digits of  Pi can help.  3) It is impressive when they can memorize several digits of this well-known number, especially in another language.  4) It’s good memory practice—our students’ memories are like muscles—they’ve got to use them to get stronger, and  5) It can give your students confidence knowing that they can memorize something difficult and that confidence will spill over into other areas.  

And those have got to be worth something!

My students have always enjoyed this challenge. It takes virtually no class time (except for eating pie afterwards as a reward).

Talk with your colleagues and brain storm about how you can celebrate Pi Day along with math and science classes. Promote numeracy and bilingualism at the same time!  There are ideas for cross-curricular activities in the links below.

Here is the handout for Pi Day in Spanish.

Here it is for Latin.