Topic-Area and Perimeter
Grade Level-I did with 4th but I think it work for 3rd and 5th too.
Objective-See the difference between area and perimeter and be able to construct rectangles with a given area or perimeter.
My students respond well when there is food involved in a lesson. They pay more attention and behave well because I don't let them eat the food unless they do well. So I used Cheez-its to help students see the square units involved in area. We began by making rectangles of certain dimensions and finding the area and perimeter. This helped them to see how we count inside squares for area and edges for perimeter. I then gave the students a given area and had them construct their own rectangles. We then shared the dimensions of our rectangles and students could see how different perimeters had the same area, and vice versa because I then gave them a perimeter to construct.
This activity really helped my students understand why area is written with square units and perimeter is just regular units. They were also able to see how why we multiply L x W to find area, because they naturally did that when counting their Cheez-its.
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What a great lesson! Kids do respond to food and they would be inexpensive manipulatives for everyone. I will probably use this activity to review area and perimeter and introduce irregular shapes where you have to find the area and perimeter. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteA million thanks - I will go buy crackers for class on Tuesday. What great timing for me to read this as MATHS202 will start area and perimeter this week!
ReplyDeleteWhile this is something my high school kids would laugh at me for, I love it! Awesome idea!
ReplyDeleteI used the cheez-its this past week and a colleague here at BSU now uses them as well. Great idea!
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