Actually Teach Finding Area and Perimeter with a Meter Wheel

Let me tell you about how I like to teach area and perimeter. One day I had an idea with my gifted students. They would make fun math problems and make an escape room outside by telling people to walk so many steps North, East, South or West. The problem?! Everybody walked differently! Someone’s 50 steps could be another person’s 25 or 100. So I scraped that idea. But then I thought of something. What if we used a meter wheel to do it and make sure it was accurate?

So I got three of these meter wheels at Harbor Freight for $14.99. They are digital and can do meters and feet. We happened we be learning about area and perimeter. As I walked into school I realized that the sidewalk areas had so many different sized rectangles, squares and triangles. I decided that day we were going outside to measure the area and perimeter of the sidewalk and anything else they wanted!

I made this sheet quick for them to bring outside.

The students went around and measured parts of the sidewalk, the playground, the side of the building, anything! The one thing that was most surprising, is that some students who were able to add to find perimeter or multiply to find area at first were very confused about the assignment. So it just goes to show you that students NEED a visual example! They need to see and understand what we are talking about, it can’t just be on paper. They have to see it in real life.

Then, they had to do the math to find the area and perimeter. After that, some students wanted to make a nice visual on Canvas to show their work. Here is what they came up with!

The students loved this activity and it was well worth buying the meter wheels!