Learning about area and/or perimeter is a lot more fun with these little guys:

The original animals are here: Животни от хартия в квадратчета  (Google Translate tells me this says, “Animals of Paper Into Squares).  It’s in Bulgarian, but the images are great and easy to use.

After doing this project on plain flimsy graph paper, I would recommend printing large-square graph paper on cardstock, like this centimeter graph paper.

For younger ones (under 7), have an adult draw the animals.  Let the kids color them, then cut out.  Exposure to the concept of a gridded drawing is ample until they are older. If they are ready, ask leading questions like, “How many squares are in the body?  How many are in the legs?”

For older kids you can do a guided drawing:

• Draw a face that has an area of 9 cm (or that includes 9 squares, if the concept of area isn’t firm)
• Draw ears that have a perimeter of 10 cm.
• Draw a tail that is 1 cm by 5 cm long.

Cut out and play!