• 60 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Pi Day Writing Prompts

A number that never ends, circles everywhere, pie on the table, and a poem counted 3, 1, 4.

Pi Day Writing Prompts

Show all 60
  1. Make a math class laugh with a pi-ku.Angle: a pun on pie is allowed once.
  2. In 1988 a museum worker noticed that March 14 spells out the start of pi; write a moment when you spotted something hiding in a date.Fact: Pi Day was founded in 1988 at a science museum in San Francisco.
  3. A circle twice as wide is twice as far around; write a Pi Day story where someone needs that fact to solve a problem.Fact: double a circle's diameter and its circumference doubles too.

Next step Write a haiku nextDraw something for Pi Day

All 60 prompts

A number that never ends 15

  • Count through the first ten digits of pi, instead of sheep, in a Pi Day bedtime story. Fact to use: the first ten digits are 3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6, 5, 3.
  • Explain to a younger child why Pi Day falls on March 14. Fact: written month first, March 14 is 3/14, and pi begins 3.14.
  • For Pi Day, write a conversation between pi and a whole number about which of them has the easier life. Fact: pi is irrational: it cannot be written as a ratio of two whole numbers.
  • In 1988 a museum worker noticed that March 14 spells out the start of pi; write a moment when you spotted something hiding in a date. Fact: Pi Day was founded in 1988 at a science museum in San Francisco.
  • July 22 is a second day for pi; write an invitation to a party on the less famous date. Fact: Pi Approximation Day is July 22, written 22/7, a fraction close to pi.
  • March 14, 2015, was nicknamed Super Pi Day; write why that date made people who love numbers so happy. Fact: written 3/14/15, the date spells pi's first five digits, 3.1415.
  • Nobody has found a pattern in the digits of pi; write a detective's Pi Day report on the search for one. Fact: the digits of pi show no pattern anyone can see and pass tests for randomness.
  • Pi has a symbol of its own, a Greek letter; invent a symbol for something in your life that is too long to write out. Fact: mathematicians write the ratio with the lowercase Greek letter pi.
  • Pi's digits go on forever without settling into a pattern; write a Pi Day story about a road, a song or a book that does the same. Fact: pi's decimal form never ends and never enters a permanently repeating pattern.
  • Since 2019 Pi Day has also been the International Day of Mathematics; write how you would spend a day that celebrates math. Fact: UNESCO's general conference made the designation in November 2019.
  • Someone sets out on Pi Day to find the last digit of pi; write how far they get. Fact: computers have extended pi to hundreds of trillions of digits, and it still has no last one.
  • Someone who has memorized a hundred digits of pi is asked on Pi Day the one question that matters, which is why; write the answer. Fact: Pi Day celebrations often involve pi recitation competitions.
  • Someone writes one digit of pi on the classroom wall every school day; write the Pi Day the wall runs out. Fact: pi begins 3.14159, and its digits never end.
  • Write pi's autobiography in one paragraph, beginning: I am a little more than three. Fact: pi is about 3.14159, a little more than three.
  • Write the Pi Day diary of someone long ago who works out pi a little more exactly than anyone before. Fact: around 250 BC a Greek mathematician found a way to approximate pi as closely as wanted.

Circles everywhere 15

  • A circle twice as wide is twice as far around; write a Pi Day story where someone needs that fact to solve a problem. Fact: double a circle's diameter and its circumference doubles too.
  • A pizza, a clock and a coin argue on Pi Day about which of them is the best circle; write the argument. Angle: each has one flaw it hopes the others will not mention.
  • As a Pi Day joke, somebody swaps a bicycle's round wheels for square ones; write the ride. First line: The first bump was a surprise. The fourth was a pattern.
  • Describe the center of a circle on Pi Day as if it were a place you could stand. Fact: every point of a circle is the same distance from the center. That distance is the radius.
  • The first Pi Day began with people walking in a circle; write the march as a puzzled visitor who came in by accident. Fact: in 1988 staff and public marched around a circular space, then ate fruit pies.
  • For Pi Day, write a day in the life of a wheel. Fact: the wheel is built on the circle.
  • Measure around a plate and across it with a piece of string on Pi Day, then write what you found as a lab note. Fact: pi is about 3.14, so the way around is a little more than three times the way across.
  • On a map, draw a circle around your home as wide as you can walk in an hour, and write for Pi Day what falls inside it. Angle: the edge is the interesting part. Name three things that sit right on the line.
  • On Pi Day, write what a circle would say is the hardest part of being a circle. First line: People think I have no beginning. I just never get to stop.
  • Pick a circle in nature for Pi Day (a ripple, the full moon, a tree ring, an eye) and write about it. Angle: say what made it round, and how long it stays that way.
  • The radius reaches from the center to the edge and the diameter goes all the way across; write them as two characters meeting on Pi Day. Fact: a diameter passes through the center and is twice as long as a radius.
  • Walk through your home on Pi Day and list every circle you find, with one sentence for the best one. Fact: pi is a circle's circumference divided by its diameter, whatever the circle's size.
  • Write about a world where nothing is round, and the Pi Day somebody draws the first circle. First line: Everything had corners, and everybody had bruises.
  • Write about running one lap of a round track on Pi Day and working out how far you went. Angle: the distance across, times a little more than three. Show the working in words.
  • Write how you would draw a circle for Pi Day with only a pencil, a pin and a piece of string. Angle: the string is the radius. Say what happens when it slips.

Pie on the table 15

  • A Pi Day pie's crust and its filling are two friends who are nothing alike; write their talk in the oven. Angle: one holds everything together and gets no credit. Let it say so.
  • A pie is delivered to the math classroom by mistake on March 14, Pi Day; write what the class decides to do. Angle: the label has another room's number on it. The debate takes longer than the pie would.
  • A slice of the Pi Day pie is gone before the party starts; write the investigation. Angle: crumbs, a fork in the sink, one face that is trying too hard.
  • Describe your favorite pie for Pi Day to someone who has to bake it from your words alone. Fact: a pie can have a base and a top, just a top, or just a base.
  • Every pie at the Pi Day bake sale has something wrong with it; write the sale. Angle: too tall, too flat, upside down, mislabeled. One of them sells out anyway.
  • The first Pi Day's party table was laid at a very particular minute; write the laying of it as the person in charge. Fact: at 1:59 on the first Pi Day a table was set out with fruit pies and a tea urn.
  • For Pi Day, write about the person in your family who makes the best pie, and what they do that nobody else does. Angle: watch the hands. The secret is usually a small habit, not an ingredient.
  • Invent a pie that has never existed and write the Pi Day menu card that describes it. Angle: name it, say what is inside, and warn the reader about one thing.
  • Judge a Pi Day pie-eating contest as someone who cannot stand a mess. First line: I was promised forks.
  • The last slice of Pi Day pie sits alone on the plate; write what everyone at the table is thinking. Angle: nobody speaks. Give each person one thought and one glance.
  • Pi Day is kept with pie because the two words sound alike; write the story of another holiday invented from a pun. Fact: pi and pie are homophones in English, and many pies happen to be circular.
  • Review a Pi Day pie the way a very serious restaurant critic would. Angle: crust, filling, temperature, and the plate it arrived on.
  • Should a pizza count as a pie on Pi Day? Take a side. Angle: crust, filling, shape. Say which one matters most.
  • Sweet or savory: argue for the best kind of pie to bring on Pi Day. Fact: a pie is a baked dish, usually a pastry casing around a sweet or savory filling.
  • Write the Pi Day pie's journey from oven to empty dish as a countdown of slices. Angle: eight, seven, six. Say who took each one and what they said.

A pi-ku 15

  • Find a circle you can see from where you are sitting and make it a pi-ku. Example of the count: Round window / moon / fills it tonight.
  • For Pi Day, write a piem: a sentence in which each word has as many letters as the next digit of pi. Fact: in a piem the number of letters in each word equals the matching digit of pi.
  • Give a pi-ku a one-syllable middle line that changes the meaning of the whole poem. Angle: try stop, but, yet, gone or yes as the middle line.
  • In long pi writing a ten-letter word stands for zero; find three ten-letter words you would enjoy using on Pi Day. Fact: in Pilish writing a 10-letter word represents the digit zero.
  • Let the number pi speak for itself in a pi-ku. Angle: it has been around a long time and has never finished a sentence.
  • Make a math class laugh with a pi-ku. Angle: a pun on pie is allowed once.
  • Make a pi-ku about pie: three syllables, one, then four. Angle: the one-syllable line can be the filling. Plum, peach, lime.
  • Put the view from your window on Pi Day into a pi-ku. Angle: name one thing in the first line and change it in the last.
  • Send a pi-ku as a birthday card to someone born on March 14. Angle: three syllables for them, one for the day, four for the wish.
  • Stretch your pi-ku to six lines, with 3, 1, 4, 1, 5 and 9 syllables. Fact: pi begins 3.14159, so the last line gets nine syllables.
  • Tell a tiny story in three pi-ku: a beginning, a middle and an end. Angle: nine lines in all. Let the three one-syllable lines read as a poem of their own.
  • Turn a haiku into a pi-ku and say what was lost and what was gained. Fact: a traditional haiku is counted 5, 7, 5. A pi-ku has eight syllables to its seventeen.
  • Write a Pi Day poem where each line has as many words as the next digit: 3, 1, 4, 1, 5. Angle: the two one-word lines carry the most weight. Choose them first.
  • Write a pi-ku: a poem of three lines with 3 syllables, then 1, then 4. Fact: a public radio blog set that 3, 1, 4 pattern as a Pi Day challenge in 2008.
  • Write a seven-word piem for Pi Day with words of 3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9 and 2 letters. Example of the count: Can I have a large blueberry pi.

How it works

Each Pi Day writing prompt here is one thing to write on March 14: a story, a lab note, an argument, an invitation or a poem of eight syllables.

Read the full guide

What a pi-ku is

A pi-ku borrows the haiku's three lines and counts them by pi: 3 syllables, then 1, then 4. A piem goes further and counts letters, so that each word is as long as the next digit: 3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9. Fifteen prompts use one count or the other.

Facts to write from

A line that starts with Fact is true of the number or of the day. Pi's digits show no pattern anyone has found. The first Pi Day had a march around a circular room and a table of fruit pies.

  • Count syllables out loud, on your fingers. The ear catches what the eye lets through.
  • For a circle prompt, pick a real circle in the room and measure it before you write.

Questions and answers

What is a good Pi Day writing prompt?

Try one from each side of the day. Write pi's autobiography, beginning I am a little more than three; a day in the life of a wheel; or the investigation after a slice of pie goes missing before the party.

When is Pi Day?

March 14. Written month first the date is 3/14, and pi begins 3.14. July 22 is Pi Approximation Day, because 22/7 is a fraction close to pi.

How do you write a pi-ku?

Three lines: three syllables, one syllable, four syllables. For example: Round window / moon / fills it tonight. A longer one adds lines of 1, 5 and 9 syllables, following the next digits of pi.

Who started Pi Day?

A physicist at a San Francisco science museum, in 1988. In 2019 UNESCO made March 14 the International Day of Mathematics as well.

More tools

Show 8 more

Browse Writing Prompts