Perimeter Lesson Plan

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Abstract

Students will learn about perimeter and the units used to measure perimeter using a variety of materials including their hands, feet, rulers, and computer applets.

Standards (NCTM 3-5)

Measurement

Understand measurable attributes of objects and the units, systems, and processes of measurement

• Understand such attributes as length, area, weight, volume, and size of angle and select the appropriate type of unit for measuring each attribute
• Understand the need for measuring with standard units and become familiar with standard units in the customary and metric systems.

Apply appropriate techniques, tools, and formulas to determine measurements

• Develop strategies for estimating the perimeters, areas, and volumes of irregular shapes.
• select and apply appropriate standard units and tools to measure length, area, volume, weight, time, temperature, and the size of angles.

Student Prerequisites

• Technological:
  Students must be able to:
  
  
  • perform basic mouse manipulations such as point, click and drag.
  • use a browser such as Netscape for experimenting with the activities.

Teacher Preparation

Students will need:

• access to a browser
• pencil, graph paper, and rulers

Lesson Outline

1. Focus and Review
Review any pertinent vocabulary.


2. Objectives
Students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge of perimeter by calculating the perimeter of computer generated shapes.


3. Teacher Input
• Have the class measure the perimeter of their desk top using their hands as the unit of measure. (Don't mention the word perimeter yet.)
• Discuss the different answers the students calculated.
• Discuss why the answers differed.
• Introduce the term perimeter.
4. Guided Practice
• Have the students work in pairs and measure the perimeter of 4 or 5 different objects around the room using different units: hands, feet, pencils, in, ft, etc.
• Monitor the students' progress.
• Have a couple of students share their examples.
• Discuss why it might be necessary to have a standard unit like: inches, feet, or meters.
• Discuss why someone might need to know the perimeter of something. (Example: fencing a yard)
• Demonstrate how to use the Perimeter Explorer.
(You may want to specify certain area settings.)
• Have the students answer a couple of computer generated problems with you.
• Demonstrate how to draw the figure generated by the computer on a piece of graph paper.
5. Independent Practice
• Have the students work either alone or in groups of two with the Perimeter Explorer.
• So you can check their progress, have the students copy the computer generated figures on a piece of graph paper.
6. Closure
• Draw a grid on the board and draw a few shapes in the grid.
• Call on several different students to help you determine the perimeter of each shape.
• Review the meaning of the word perimeter.
• Review the different units used to measure perimeter.

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