Thoughts on
Area and Perimeter
December, 1998
Suzanne Alejandre's mathematics students explain their thoughts on the definitions of area and perimeter. Here is a sample of their responses.
Rimantas B.:
Length is how long something is.
Perimeter is how many units are around the shape.
Area is how many square units are inside the whole shape.
Tony A.:
In Mrs. Alejandre's class we have been studying the area, length and perimeter. The area means the number of square units needed to cover a surface. The length is the number of the side and top or bottom. The perimeter is the length around something like a border.
Esperanza R.:
If you have a square or rectangle and you want to find the length for it you have to count how many squares it is going down and how many squares it is going across. If you want to find the perimeter of it you have to count how many lines are on the outside of the square. If you want to find the area of the square all you have to do is to count all of the little squares that are in the middle of the square.
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