Area and Perimeter 2

The terms area and perimeter are more examples of maths vocabulary that your child may know.  Again, like numerator and denominator, in our work with children, we found that nearly all of them knew the terms but were unsure of the meaning and often interchanged the two.

One technique we used was to make a rhyme with actions that provided the children with a 'hook' to hang their understanding on. If you ask your child to do tasks such as those in the video, it helps get the message across about each concept using his/her body as a learning tool. I know in Area and Perimeter 1 we said that we are only happy to be silly in front of children but Anne decided to don the mouse slippers for the sake of children in this video!  Luckily I (Pam) was in charge of the camera!

We used these two 'hooks' whenever we were working on Area and Perimeter and we always reached a point where; whenever we would say 'perimeter' all the children in the group immediately moved their hands around in a circle singing 'round the outside, round the outside!'

Our next step was only to use the hand signals as a silent reminder when working on the topic.  Eventually the children needed no reminders. At that point we knew that the concepts were both fully understood.

These concepts are easier for your child to learn when taught together, as there is less chance of mixing them up then and easier for him/her to see the differences between the two.