This is a task from the Illustrative Mathematics website that is one part of a complete illustration of the standard to which it is aligned. Each task has at least one solution and some commentary that addresses important asects of the task and its potential use. Here are the first few lines of the commentary for this task: Find the area of each colored figure. Each grid square is 1 inch long....

Students develop and solidify their understanding of the concept of "perimeter" as they engage in a portion of the civil engineering task of land surveying. Specifically, they measure and calculate the perimeter of a fenced in area of "farmland," and see that this length is equivalent to the minimum required length of a fence to enclose it. Doing this for variously shaped areas confirms that the perimeter is the minimal length of fence required to enclose those shapes. Then students use the technology of a LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robot to automate this task. After measuring the perimeter (and thus required fence length) of the "farmland," students see the NXT robot travel around this length, just as a surveyor might travel around an area during the course of surveying land or measuring for fence materials. While practicing their problem solving and measurement skills, students learn and reinforce their scientific and geometric vocabulary.

In this 20-day module, students explore area as an attribute of two-dimensional figures and relate it to their prior understandings of multiplication.
To access this resource, you will need to create a free account for the system on which it resides. The partner provides personalized features on their site such as bookmarking and highlighting which requires a user account.

In this 43-day module, students use place value understanding and visual representations to solve multiplication and division problems with multi-digit numbers. As a key area of focus for Grade 4, this module moves slowly but comprehensively to develop student's ability to reason about the methods and models chosen to solve problems with multi-digit factors and dividends.
To access this resource, you will need to create a free account for the system on which it resides. The partner provides personalized features on their site such as bookmarking and highlighting which requires a user account.

This resource is a remix of the original lesson from Illustrative mathematics https://tasks.illustrativemathematics.org/content-standards/3/MD/C/7/tasks/1990. Suggested Modifications- I like the original activity in the lesson plan on India's bathroom tile, however, it is crucial to allow students to explore and have a mathematical dialogue as part of the scaffolding process to activate their background knowledge on the content, instead of asking them to directly dive in the computation process. The modification will allow students to have a mathematical discourse about the topic, providing them an opportunity to work in an interactive learning environment with math manipulatives. 

Students will find helpful resources for learning and practicing math skills and processes in this eMediaVA collection.

      Using the picture book The True Story of the Three Pigs by A. Wolf  as told to Jon Scieska, students will complete math word problems that cover the measurement SOLs. They will also write their own “true story” of another fairy tale, which covers the English writing SOLs. An extension of this unit could be to have students create math word problems based on their new story and have their classmates solve them. This lesson can also be used as an art activity if the story is illustrated. If technology is available, it can be an opportunity for students to practice their computer skills to create a final version of their new illustrated fairy tale or to use the computer to illustrate it.  

Solving practical problems involving perimeter and area Mathematics Instructional Plans (MIPs) help teachers align instruction with the Mathematics Standards of Learning (SOL) by providing examples of how the knowledge, skills and processes found in the SOL and curriculum framework can be presented to students in the classroom.

Solving practical problems involving perimeter and area Mathematics Instructional Plans (MIPs) help teachers align instruction with the Mathematics Standards of Learning (SOL) by providing examples of how the knowledge, skills and processes found in the SOL and curriculum framework can be presented to students in the classroom.