Lesson Plan Grade 4

Furthering Understanding of Perimeter

Objectives

The purpose of this lesson is for students to solve geometric problems using their
understanding of length measurements, unit conversions, multiplicative comparison and
addition or subtraction of fractions.

Procedures

Warm up (10 minutes)

True or False: Fractions and Whole Numbers
Teacher will display one statement on the board that is a mathematical equation
involving addition/subtraction of fractions

“Give me a signal when you know whether the statement is true and can explain how
you know”

Share and record answers and strategies

Repeat for four different equations that increase with difficulty

Activity 1 (15 minutes)

“Let’s solve some problems about the side lengths and perimeter of a room”

Give students these 2 problems:

“A rectangular room has a perimeter of 39 feet and a length of 10 ½ feet.
1. What is the width of the room in feet? Explain or show your reasoning
2. An ant walked along two walls of the room, always in a straight line. It started in
one corner and ended up in a corner opposite of where it started. How many
inches did it travel? Explain or show your reasoning.”

Encourage the students to draw a diagram of the room and to label the sides with
known measurements
6-8 minutes: independent work time
4-5 minutes: partner discussion

Invite students to briefly share their response to the first question

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Focus the discussion on the last question for majority of synthesis time
Select students with different strategies to find the distance the ant walked to share
their reasoning

Activity 2 (20 minutes)

6 pieces of paper will be posted around the room.

Each piece has a shape with either one missing measurement, or a missing perimeter
labeled A, B, C, D, E, F.

Assign students into groups of 3-4, being strategic with different math levels of the
students.
“Students, you will now be working on one problem that is posted around the room.
Each of these problems either have one missing length/width or a missing perimeter.
When you work on this problem make sure that everyone in the group is included and
understands how to solve for the missing side or missing perimeter because after each
group finishes, one of you will be asked to show the class what you did.”

7-8 minutes: independent work time on their problem

10 minutes: have each question posted on the board and call up one student from each
group to show their work and explain how they found their answer to the class.

Lesson Synthesis (10 minutes)

Consolidate the work and write the perimeter of each shape on the board and prompt
the class with two questions to synthesize the learning:

“The perimeter of B is how many times the perimeter of D?”

“The perimeter of one figure is 1,000 times that of another figure. Which are the two
figures?”
- This question should result in a unit conversion
- Ex. one shape has the perimeter 1000km and the other shape has the perimeter
1m

5-7 minutes: partner work

5-7 minutes: have two students share with the class the answer they got and their
reasoning

Cool-down (5 minutes)

Students will be given a cool-down worksheet to be completed and collected by the

teacher.
The cool-down will consist of a problem that combines all of the learning throughout
class and will be an indicator to the teacher as to which students understood and
which are still confused. This will guide what is taught in math the following days.

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Materials

1. Missing measurements sheets posted around the room

2. Math workbooks
3. Pencil

Assessment

The assessment will be the cool-down worksheet. This worksheet will consist of two
quick problems that relate to what was taught in class. One of the questions will have the
students solve for a missing measurement and the other question will ask about
comparing two perimeters similar to the lesson synthesis questions. This cool-down
worksheet will be collected by the teacher at the end of class and the teacher should look
at each student’s work and evaluate what needs to be reviewed more at the beginning of
next class and what was understood well by the students.

Extension and Homework

The homework will practice some of the skills that were taught during the class session
surrounding the objectives: understanding of length measurements, unit conversion,
multiplicative comparison and addition or subtraction of fractions. Specifically the
worksheet will have a few more questions about finding a missing measurement along
with some written problems as seen in the first activity. This homework will hopefully
solidify their understanding of the material and help them see how certain strategies can
be generalized for many different problems.