Perimeter and Area Soccer

So, in my class, we played a little soccer. Perimeter and Area Soccer that is! When I tell you guys this was an awesome and engaging activity, I literally mean it. My principal and the entire admin team came down to check it out. Other classes stopped by or slowed down in the hallway to see what was going on. But the main people that mattered were my students who enjoyed and learned a lot about perimeter and area on a makeshift soccer field.

Want to know how it works? Well, keep reading!

Of course, you have to start off with some sort of hook to get the students interested. You can ask what does a baseball field, basketball court, football field and soccer field all have in common. Of course, you're going to have that one student who states they all must use a ball in order to play. Now although that child is correct, that's not the exact answer you're looking for at the moment. But I guarantee you there will be that one student who gets it right on the spot. They all must have a perimeter and area.

Once my students figured this out, I discussed more on the topic so that students can recollect information about perimeter and area and see the real-world connections. We then headed out to the hallway where a small portion of the hall had been transformed into a makeshift soccer field. On our soccer field, there were at least six different shapes that students had to find the perimeter and area. A couple were regular polygons whereas the remainder were irregular polygons.

As mentioned before students must work as a team, which means they must keep their teammates in mind. They were required to make sure everyone understood how to find the answer, found the same answer, and was completed with determining the figure before their team could move on to the next shape. Believe it or not, this was harder than I thought. Mainly because some students were rushing and still had the incorrect answer. The students who were taking their time realized that they would find the correct answer without rushing.

But once each team made their way across the field, they had to find the measurements for an even difficult shape on the opposite side (I mean think about it, there's always a goalie on the opposite team that's trying to block you from scoring). When students made their goals, they were only considered the winners if all their (that means everyone on their team) answers were correct.

Once early finishers were done (the winners), students were given area and perimeter word problems to work on together or independently, if they chose.