Reviewing Area and Perimeter with 3 Fun Ways

Are you looking for some new ideas for reviewing the area and perimeter? You’ve come to the right place! In this post, I’ll show you a few different activities I use for reviewing area and perimeter with third graders. These ideas for reviewing area and perimeter go from a whole group activity to a small group activity to independent practice. Stick around to the end to find out how to get an Area and Perimeter Poster FREEBIE!

3 ways for reviewing area and perimeter.

Reviewing Area and Perimeter with a Scavenger Hunt

A concept that students must tackle is the idea of shapes can look different but have the same areas or even the same perimeters. Their tasks were to:

find the same area, different perimeter
find the same perimeter, different area
find the same perimeter, same area

So here is a way to combine some hands-on with a practical and quick practice that involves the entire class. Each student receives a bag of foam tiles (I use the ones that came with the math program) and one index card. These were my instructions:

pick either 8, 10, 12, 14 or 16 tiles
make a rectangular shape with those tiles
record your perimeter and area on the index card

Construct a shape for reviewing area and perimeter.

Once all the students had done this, the fun began. I had the students now walk around the room and search for another shape they thought had the same area, but different perimeter. Once they found it, they had to record the other student’s name on their card.

Then, I had them find a shape that had the same perimeter, but different area and record that student’s name. Finally, I had them search for a perfect match: the same area, same perimeter. It can be a very noisy activity, but here’s a helpful hint. Tell them that they are in an art museum, each rectangle is a masterpiece, so no touching and use quiet museum voices. It works like a charm!

It was fascinating to watch how they were able to eyeball shapes and determine whether it was worth investigating and counting the perimeter or area. But at the same time, I was assured that they were actually practicing finding area and perimeter as they tried several different shapes until they found the one they needed to record on their index card.

The final step was to ask a few students who their match was. When a student volunteered, I asked the matching student if the measurements were correct. All in all, great fun, great practice and it took no more than 20 minutes.

An engaging activity to review area and perimeter.

Variations for this Activity

Once the students get the hang of it, you can do these variations:

have students make irregular shapes with their tiles
have students use graph paper to draw shapes and label the sides in units (1 square equals one unit)
challenge students to make a shape that has an odd-numbered area or perimeter (i. e., 13 units for perimeter or 13 units squared for the area)
challenge students to build a shape, find the area and perimeter then hunt of a shape that is TWICE the area or TWICE the perimeter

Reviewing Area and Perimeter with a Game

I developed this game as a review for reviewing area and perimeter but in a versatile game format. This particular game has 8 versions.

A: Find the perimeter using line grids.
B: Find the perimeter using measured sides.
C: Find the missing length given the perimeter.
D: Find the area using squares.
E: Find the area using measured sides or the formula Length x Width.
F: Find the area of connected rectangles and squares using the Distributive Property of Multiplication.
G: Find the perimeter and area using measured sides.
H: Find the perimeter and area using squares.

The same game board is used for all 8 versions (so I printed out an additional 7 more). I had already preassigned students to a particular level depending on those who needed some more basic review to those who needed to be challenged.

We spent about 20 minutes playing the game which was enough for at least one round for each group. I updated this game and it has a new look. Also, I added a BLACK AND WHITE version for non-color printing. More information on the game can be found HERE in my TpT Store.

Reviewing Area and Perimeter using Google Slides™

If you’ve read some of my previous blog posts, you know I have a cart full of Chrome Books. I have been putting them to good use by developing practice pages with Google Slides. I made a few quick slides like the one shown below in which the students had to work on a real-world situation.

They were given a scratch paper to use. Not only do I want my students to practice area and perimeter, but I also want them to practice answering these questions on a computer in a similar fashion to online testing. In this particular Google Slides review, I prepared 4 slides.

I also have a Perimeter of Shapes and Area of Shapes resource available in my store which is Google Apps Ready! They each include 14 interactive problems increasing in difficulty based on Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Google Slides Resources for Area and Perimeter.

Once the students were done with the slides, they were free to move onto the actual textbook practice review, which they finished at home as homework (and also used as a study guide).

Examples of perimeter practice in the digital notebook

Examples for practicing area in the digital notebook

In addition to these digital interactive notebooks, I also have some additional resources for teaching and practicing area and perimeter. Check them out in my TpT store!

More resources for learning area and perimeter

There you have it. Three quick and easy ways to practice area and perimeter. Each practice session took between 20 minutes each, which fit perfectly into my math block.

Update for January 2020!

I’ve just recently updated this Area and Perimeter Resource with new fonts, clipart, and design. I’ve also added 2 more tasks! The new tasks include finding the area of irregular shapes and the other is determining which figure doesn’t belong based on area or perimeter measurements. See more of the preview in MY STORE!