Area and Perimeter Activities
Sometimes middle school math students have difficulty remembering how to find area versus how to find perimeter, so I’ve tried to use a variety of activities to help them visualize and practice with these concepts.
This particular activity is a Footloose task card game to help students practice finding areas and perimeters of rectangles. This Footloose math activity includes 30 question cards that require students to:
- calculate area and perimeter of rectangles
- find missing sides of squares and rectangles
- find the perimeter when given the area and a side length
- compare areas and perimeters of rectangles
Many of the cards include diagrams to help students visualize the situation and to help get them into the habit of using diagrams or drawings. For those questions that don’t have diagrams on the cards, I encourage students to draw their own.
Playing Footloose
When playing Footloose, students receive one task card at a times. Students solve every problem and record their answers in the corresponding box on the Footloose grid that they each receive.
Sometimes I offer a little prize to students who are the first finished AND have the most answers correct (finishing first/quickly is not recognized….it’s the correct part that we focus on). More Footloose details here.
There’s a Footloose recording sheet included and an answer key that students can use to self-check if you’d like. These cards are great as a whole class activity, a small group activity or even a center activity.
To get the freebie, click the link below! I hope you can use it (if you haven’t already:-).
