I have found that using grid paper is a great visual for both perimeter and area. Students will be able to count squares used in the area concept and draw lines for each perimeter edge. Color also helps to cement in the concept of each to students. Have fun!
Mrs. H WI
I hesitate to tell you this - but it worked..
Posted by: Chiara #132981
SOmetimes with my rowdy bunch - it pays just to acknowledge their nature. I am a very "proper" teacher, but when they got confused, I wrote on the board A=SS (which was area equaled side by adjacent side) and P=S+S+S+S+S (Perimenter equaled side plus side plus side to the # of sides. They noticed, but were very quiet so that I wouldn't notice - but everyone of them now remembers ASS and PSSSSS. No confusion anymore. And they really think I have no idea.
We sing a song as we walk around the edges of the tables in our room. The tune is to the song "Here we go round the mulberry bush."
"Here we go round the perimeter fence, the perimeter fence, the perimeter fence, Here we go round the perimeter fence, add up all the sides"
Perimeter starts with a p. Pets starts with a p. Have kids think about building a fence around the area to keep their pet in. Then for area have them think about the playground area at school the area inside the fence is where they play. or you can ping off the pet idea and say the area inside the fence is where your pet plays.
I teach it as a fence you need to build to keep your horse or dog in your yard. I draw the figures on the board and a fence. Then we figure out how much fence we need. I introduced it that way in August and still have some kids refer to perimeter as a fence!
Hard to explain, but I'll try...
Posted by: Risa #132985
My students, in the past, have had trouble keeping perimeter and area correctly identified. My team partner came up with the following: As they say the word, PER-I-ME-TER, they are "drawing" a rectangle (or square) in the air. The word has four syllables and the rectangle (or square) has four sides, so they say a syllable as they "draw" a side. ANYTIME we say the word PERIMETER, we automatically draw the rectangle (or square) in the air to indicate that perimeter is the measure of the OUTSIDE of the shape.
After they got that, I taught them to remember AREA by waving their flattened hand in a small space as if they are filling in the interior of the whole space. They are taught that AREA is the measure of the INSIDE of a shape. Again, each time we say AREA, we wave a flat hand to 'f...
Well.......I walked around their desks and counted the perimeter and told them the word RIM was inside of this word perimeter. I then ha ha ha walked on top of their desks!:eek: We talked about the rim of other objects in the room. With area I handed out paper make believe "area rugs" they colored them and we voted on our favorite "Rug" to place around the rooms. They all have area rugs at home different sizes and colors, long ones and short ones, squares and rectangular. Anyway I told them that the area rug covers an area of the house. How much area does yours cover????Are some the same area but look different? We shared up front two that covered the same "area" but looked different. The paper rug had large squares on them to decorate and color. We also put tasles on the end with a hole ...
I always tell my kids that area is like the grass in the yard and the perimeter is the fence. You can also tell them that the Area (starts with A) means all, and the P in Perimeter looks like the outside of a shape. (works better with a more square letter p) Also, Cheezits (sp) are close to one inch. You could have kids measure the area and perimeter with these. These could be hand drawn shapes or you could even do newspaper articles etc. I went to Amazon.com and found a book that looks to be about area and perimeter. Read the reviews, I have never used it, but it looks cute! Spaghetti and Meatballs for All, by Marilyn Burns Hope this helps.
We have a rug for whole-meeting areas and I have asked my students from the beginning of the year to sit on the perimeter of the carpet (when we want to sit in a circle) or sit in the area of the carpet (for when they are in rows to look at me in the front). By the time we got to perimeter and area in math, they had a good understanding of it because they had physically demonstrated it so many times.
...make a "big Plus" sign instead of the "t" in the word perime+er. This will help them to remember to add all the sides. Also, the word "rim" in perimeter is a help.
For area, try "an area rug covers".
I had my 5th graders take a sheet of paper and make a border on it using the word perimeter over and over. I then had them fill in the middle with the word area in large letters and I had them shade it in lightly with their pencil.
I got the idea from a previous poster - we used Cheez It crackers, gave them a handful each, they made a perimeter - figured it out - then filled in the figure with the crackers and determined the area! They had to figure both out before they could eat their crackers!
i teach 4th..I use the swimming pool analogy to introduce length and width and area.....draw a picture of it on the board, too....i also talk about how the perimeter is the distance around the classroom walls, and area is the carpet..i have them trace the perimeter of the desk with their hand and then show me the area of the desk with their hand....they often get mixed up between adding for perimeter and mulitplying though....
OK first of all I teach 7/8th grade math and some of mine are STILL getting these two mixed up :confused:
Saying that...The way to get these guys to remember things is to be weird and slightly silly.
So I demonstrate Ms. H being a penguin and doing a penguin walk around the Perimeter. This is so silly that they remember. I've had former students who report they STILL chuckle in high school math about Ms. H's weird Penguin Walk :D
I just taught a lesson on perimeter to third graders, but I had them use straws (you could use any type of measurement - ribbons, strings of paper clips...) and have them measure items around the room or items that you have enlarged and printed out from your computer. I guess it depends on how rowdy your class is - are they able to walk around the room and measure items with a manipulative?
Hope this helps and GOOD LUCK!
...using square tiles. Have students create rectangles with different dimensions, (3 x 5, 2 x 7, etc.) and have them find the perimeter. Then challenge them by giving them the perimeter and having them find the dimensions. You can even tie in area. Students can copy they're rectangles on graph paper.
Another activity could be with toothpicks. Have students create different shapes and find the perimeter with the toothpick being one unit.
I just did an activity last week. I picked up a bunch of different candy bars, and had students measure and figure our area and perimeter of each. We even did circumference with Reeces cups.
We do a "lab" with inch tile squares. They start with 1 tile and find the perimeter (4 in.) and area (1 square inch). Then, they have 2 tiles in a 1X2 rectangle and find the perimeter and area. Then, they have 3 tiles in a 1X3 rectange and find the perimeter and area. They look for a pattern. Then, they make a hypothesis about what would happen if they did it with 2 inch wide rectangles, test it, and record the results. We graph this and so it also goes along with our graphing standards.
We also give them a certain perimeter 20 inches and they use inch tiles to find the different rectangles that can be made with this perimeter and find the area of each.
When I taught 6th, I did a design your bedroom unit on graph paper. One of the parts was to figure out how much...
Um, I don't have any games, but I just did an onomatopoeia lesson with my 5h graders last week. We had a lot of fun. One thing I used is a video clip from Youtube that illustrates onomatopoeia. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-BVwwKTjlI (We also watched a cute clip where Tigger sings about onomatopoeia, but that was just for fun, it didn't really add anything to the lesson).
We brainstormed lots of examples, and I sometimes wrote an example on the board, and we discussed what might make those sounds. I also read a few poems that used it and we discussed how it is used frequently in comic strips. As a HW assignment, the kids had to create a comic strip, using five different examples of onomatopoeia. They enjoyed this; some kids did cool computer generated ones...
