Perimeter ~ usually goes right along with area and can be confusing for some of your young learners…hopefully today I will give you some tips to make it stick with them a little more.
The first thing I do is take the kids outside for part of the lesson.
( My brilliant team partner shared this idea of taking them outside years ago )
This serves several purposes…
First of all, they love being outdoors and switching things up a bit. But more importantly, we walk ( follow the leader – single file line style ) to the basketball court and spread out around the perimeter of the court. I stand in the middle and talk to them and get a discussion going about where they are standing. I listen to the words they throw out at me, like: outside, around, edge, etc. Usually I have at least one student yell out rim…. a ha!!!! That’s the ticket!
I then tell them yes – that’s the perfect way to describe where we are, we are around the rim of the shape ( rectangle )/ court.
As we go back inside I point out an anchor chart that I have pre made that looks like this:
They visual of the box around the word rim is really what helps them remember the most along with the experience of being outside around the rim of the court. Hopefully these quick easy tips can help make your math block on perimeter really be memorable for your students.
Join me every week on Wednesday for more fun ideas on my weekly series:
Let me know how it goes…as always
happy teaching!
xo,
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We will be heading outside for this lesson.