Dancing Area and Perimeter

Finding Area and Perimeter:
This was an exciting lesson taken from the LTTA website.
Prior to the lesson, I used masking tape to make large geometric shapes on the floors.

Prior to talking about AREA and PERIMETER, we talked about what estimating and good estimating looked like. Students were given a partner and asked to decide who was the apple and who was the banana. They were to stand apart from each other and estimate how many crab steps, bear steps....it would take to get to their partner.
Students brought to the area and we talked about what an edge is.

I introduced the sound of a drum beating, and explained that they had to move in anyway they wanted, to the beat of the drum. When the drum stopped, they were to find a shape and stand on the edge of it. We did this a few times with varying drum beats.

Next, I introduced the sound of a triangle, and explained that when they heard this sound, they were to tip-toe around the edge of a shape. We did this a few times at varying lengths and beats.

Lastly, a shaker was introduced and they were told to try to cover the shape with their bodies when they heard the shaker. We spent about 20 minutes doing different arrangements of these 3 instruments.

We gathered around the rectangle and I told them that I was going to find the distance AROUND the shape by walking heal to toe with my feet. They made estimates, and then I walked around. We discussed how this is called PERIMETER and how my measuring tool was my feet. We talked about how somebody elses measurement might be different if they had smaller feet and what other measuring tools we could use. Students were then sent with their math scribblers to estimate, measure and record the various perimeters of the shapes.

After discussion, I asked students if they could think of a way to cover a shape. They came up with many ideas, such as using people sitting, standing, laying... We found the area of many shapes and discussed what AREA meant.

At the time, the students were working on stuffed 3D sea creatures (try to say that 3 times fast!). Before they could stuff their animal, they had to find the perimeter and area of the shape with a measureing tool of their choice!

This was a fun and effective way to teach students about area and perimeter!