Area and Perimeter: Hands-on Lesson Ideas that are Fun!

My oldest daughter has been studying area and perimeter, two of my favorite math concepts to teach. They are easy topics to have fun with. Plus, the manipulative options for them are wide open. Today we used LEGO® blocks for math. The kids loved it!

Hands-On Area And Perimeter Activities Fork Kids

The first thing we did was preview important vocabulary words. I wrote each word on the top of a sticky note. Then, Big Bit used the glossary in her math book to write the definition under the vocabulary word.

These were the words we focused on.

Square unit
Area
Perimeter
Plane figure

A child is defining the key vocabulary terms using a glossary.

Exploring How to Find the Area of Rectangles

After the definitions were done, it was time to pull out the LEGO® blocks.

I had already separated out a bunch of the square blocks, a base, and the fence pieces.

The first direction was to build a solid rectangle. Then, I asked her to count how many squares she used.

Once that was done, we talked about the rectangle as an array and wrote a multiplication fact to find the area. We compared both methods and noticed that multiplication was quicker, although both methods led to the same answer.

A child is building a figure out of building bricks.

Exploring How to Find the Perimeter of Rectangles

Next, I gave her one of her favorite LEGO® people, a very girly elf, to be exact, and had her make the elf walk around the perimeter.

We talked about the fact that we counted squares (square units) when we measured the rectangle area but counted the sides of the blocks (units of length) to find the perimeter.

Area = square units = count the square blocks
Perimeter = units of length = count the sides of the blocks around the edges

To emphasize the concept, I had her build a fence around the perimeter of her rectangle.

A child is walking a small doll around the perimeter of the rectangle. She is calculating the area and perimeter.

Exploring Shapes Composed of Rectangles

After learning how to find the area and perimeter of rectangles, we explored how to find the area of shapes made with a combination of rectangles.

We found the area in 3 ways:

Count all the squares in both rectangles together.
Count the squares in each rectangle separately. Then, add them together.
Find the area of each rectangle using multiplication and then add the products together.

Of course, all three methods yielded the same answer, but I wanted Big Bit to see that for herself.

A figure is made from two rectangular areas put together. The area and perimeter of the figure are calculated in three ways.

Exploring Halve Units

The last topic I wanted to cover with Big Bit was tiling shapes and finding the area of shapes that included half units.

For this activity, we switched from using LEGOS® to using sticky notes.

I gave Big Bit a big piece of construction paper with a shape outlined on it, scissors, and a pack of square sticky notes.

After explaining that each stick note was one square unit, I asked her to figure out the area of the figure I had drawn.

Square sticky notes are used to tile a figure.

She played around with the sticky notes for a little bit and realized that she could not completely cover the exact shape without cutting some of the sticky notes in half.

Once she figured that out, finding the area was easy peasy.

With all that hands-on practice, her workbook pages were a breeze! I love to include hands-on activities for math concepts like the area and perimeter activities in this post or the geometry activities here whenever I can.