Teaching area and perimeter can be a boring subject for some learners. Spice up your lessons by adding hands-on activities for your middle schoolers. Engaging in various learning styles allows students to complete and apply the concepts during every assignment!
1. Build A City Stem Activity
This STEM activity is perfect for teaching about perimeter and area. Students will create their city using grid paper, colors, and construction paper. This hands-on activity will allow your students to apply their knowledge to real life as if they were architects!
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2. Wrapping Presents Stem Activity
This festive area and perimeter activity are excellent for Christmas time. Students will learn how to effectively measure their presents and wrap them perfectly through this real-world application. All you need is wrapping paper and some items to cover, and they will develop a skill they will use for the rest of their lives.
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3. Ribbon Squares
Ribbon squares are an excellent lesson idea to get your students up and moving while teaching about area and perimeter. Challenge your students to make the smallest and biggest squares possible while working together and building their geometrical concept skills.
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4. Brush Loads
Brush loads are another helpful idea to teach middle school geometry concepts. This practical activity is perfect for visual learners and can be extended to more complex levels for enrichment classes.
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5. Topple Blocks
Topple blocks is an excellent activity for students to practice their geometry skills. With many task cards within the tower, students must collaborate to answer questions about area and perimeter!
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6. Make A Kite
Creating kites is a hands-on practice for teaching area and perimeter. Students will make their kites and test the effectiveness of each kite they build, which integrates the scientific method into this lesson.
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7. Island Conquer
Island Conquer is a fun activity that challenges students to show their knowledge of area and perimeter. Students must plot rectangles and grid paper and then calculate the size of each rectangle or island.
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8. Reorganize A House
Middle schoolers will learn geometry concepts and apply their knowledge through reorganizing a house on graph paper. This real-life application teaches students that area and perimeter are essential for daily tasks such as moving around furniture or placing items in your home!
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9. Escape Room
This interactive learning activity will get your middle schoolers moving around the classroom, collaborating with their teammates to solve each area and perimeter problem. Escape rooms challenge your students to solve the clues and apply knowledge, making math class even more fun!
Learn More: The Escape Classroom
10. Build a Tiny House
Like building a city, have your students apply their area and perimeter knowledge by designing a tiny house. They must measure the area of each asset they put in their house and ensure they have enough space for everything. This math resource is perfect for skills practice and application.
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11. Square and Rectangle Art
If you want a unique math class, have your students use rules and grid paper to create art from squares and rectangles! Give rulers to students to make perfect squares or rectangles, which applies real-life skills of measuring objects.
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12. Post It Notes Area and Perimeter
Use colored sticky notes or colored construction paper to create shapes that students must use to calculate the areas. Middle school math students will love using sticky notes and will be learning simultaneously.
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13. Area Dice Game
Use the Area Dice Game as a great board game for your middle school students. It is the perfect math center activity and will engage your students the entire class.
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14. Create A Rectangular Prism
Use centimeter cubes to show children the difference between area and volume. Have them build a rectangle or square on graph paper, color it in the area, and calculate it.
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15. Real-Life Tetris
Tetris is a simple, hands-on application that allows middle school students to understand the idea of area and perimeter and that each object has a particular measurement.
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16. Build a Tree House
Treehouse construction is a favorite activity recommended by many teachers. Students will practice measuring the perimeter and area using manipulatives to create a unique tree house!
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17. Surface Area of Rectangular Prisms
Teach your students about the surface area of rectangular prisms by having them create their own! These perimeter and area figures are an excellent way to practice and observe the surface area, volume, and perimeter differences.
Learn More: To The Square Inch Blog
18. Surface Area and Volume Castle
An excellent area and perimeter project are having your students create their castles! Students can be creative and design their castles with different regions and perimeters!
Learn More: Taylor J's Math Materials
19. Create a Monster
Creating a monster is an excellent activity for students to practice their geometry skills. There is only one task card, but students have hundreds of possibilities for their creations!
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20. Game: Surface Areas of Prisms
Create a game about prisms' surface areas to engage your students with our lesson. Students will learn about surface area and perimeter, and you can extend it to teach about volume!
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