Suzanne Alejandre's mathematics students explain their thoughts on the definitions of area and perimeter. Here is a sample of their responses. 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.
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. If you want to find the perimeter of it you have to count how many lines are on the outside of the square.