Area

Lesson 7

Math

Unit 4

3rd Grade

Lesson 7 of 14

Objective


Understand standard units for measuring area, including square inches, square centimeters, square feet, and square meters, and choose an appropriate unit to measure the area of various rectangles.

Common Core Standards


Core Standards

  • 3.MD.C.6 — Measure areas by counting unit squares (square cm, square m, square in, square ft, and improvised units).

Criteria for Success


  1. Understand that square centimeters, square inches, square feet, and square meters are standard measurement units for measuring area, each of which has a side length of 1 centimeter, inch, foot, or meter, respectively.
  2. Develop benchmarks for square centimeters, square inches, square feet, and square meters. 
  3. Explain why two figures with the same number of square units but with different sized square units differ in size (MP.3).
  4. Explain the inverse relationship between the size of the unit of area and the number of units needed to cover a specific area (MP.3).
  5. Identify the most appropriate unit to use to measure the area of a particular object, such as using square feet to measure the area of a room. 
  6. Estimate the area of a particular object, such as a piece of paper having an area of about 90 square inches as opposed to 90 square meters. 

Tips for Teachers


Lesson Materials

  • Square Inch Grid Template (3 copies per student) — Students will need one copy for Anchor Task 1, and one copy for each of the Problem Set and Extra Practice Problems.
  • Template: Square Centimeter Grid (3 copies per student) — Students will need one copy for Anchor Task 1, and one copy for each of the Problem Set and Extra Practice Problems
  • Ruler (1 per student) — These need to have both inch and centimeter measures
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Anchor Tasks

25-30 minutes


Problem 1

Your teacher will give you two kinds of grid paper, one for you and one for a partner. Decide which partner will use which grid paper. Then create a rectangle for each expression on your grid paper.

a.   2 × 5

b.   7 × 3

c.   6 × 8

Guiding Questions

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Student Response

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References

Illustrative Mathematics Grade 3 Unit 2 Lesson 6 Activity 1

Grade 3 Unit 2 Lesson 6 Activity 1, accessed on Sept. 16, 2022, 11:45 a.m., is licensed by Illustrative Mathematics under either the CC BY 4.0 or CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. For further information, contact Illustrative Mathematics.

Problem 2

a.   This is a square meter.

What kinds of areas would make sense to measure with square meters? Be ready to explain your reasoning.

b.   This is a square foot.

What kinds of areas would make sense to measure with square feet? Be ready to explain your reasoning.

Guiding Questions

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Student Response

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References

Illustrative Mathematics Grade 3 Unit 2 Lesson 7 Activity 1

Grade 3 Unit 2 Lesson 7 Activity 1, accessed on Sept. 21, 2022, 6:41 p.m., is licensed by Illustrative Mathematics under either the CC BY 4.0 or CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. For further information, contact Illustrative Mathematics.

Problem 3

a.   For each area tell if you would use square centimeters, square inches, square feet, or square meters to measure it and why you chose that unit.

  1. The area of a baseball field
  2. The area of a cover of a book you’re reading
  3. The area of our classroom
  4. The area of a piece of paper
  5. The area of the top of a table
  6. The area of the screen on a phone

b.   Choose the area that best matches each item. Be ready to explain your reasoning.

  1. A playing card
About 9 square inches
  1. The floor of a classroom
About 3 square feet
  1. A sticky note
About 55 square centimeters
  1. The top of a student desk
About 55 square meters

Guiding Questions

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Student Response

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References

Illustrative Mathematics Math Grade 3 Unit 2 Lesson 7 Activity 2

Math Grade 3 Unit 2 Lesson 7 Activity 2, accessed on Sept. 21, 2022, 6:47 p.m., is licensed by Illustrative Mathematics under either the CC BY 4.0 or CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. For further information, contact Illustrative Mathematics.

Problem Set

15-20 minutes


Discussion of Problem Set

  • Which shape had larger area, the one whose area is 8 square inches or the one whose area is 8 square centimeters? How do you know?
  • Did it take more square centimeters or square inches to fill the rectangle in #2? Why?
  • I would have expected it to take more square inches to fill the rectangle in #2 since we know from #1 that square inches cover more area. How would you help me understand the differences between #1 and #2?
  • What item did you say would be best measured in square feet in #3? With square meters? Why?

Target Task

5-10 minutes


Problem 1

Choose the best estimate for the area of a postcard.

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Student Response

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Problem 2

What unit would you use to measure the area of a playground? Explain. 

Student Response

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Additional Practice


The Extra Practice Problems can be used as additional practice for homework, during an intervention block, etc. Daily Word Problems and Fluency Activities are aligned to the content of the unit but not necessarily to the lesson objective, therefore feel free to use them anytime during your school day.

Word Problems and Fluency Activities

Word Problems and Fluency Activities

Help students strengthen their application and fluency skills with daily word problem practice and content-aligned fluency activities.

Next

Measure the side lengths of a rectangle to find its area.

Lesson 8
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Lesson Map

A7CB09C2-D12F-4F55-80DB-37298FF0A765

Topic A: Understanding Concepts of Area

Topic B: The Distributive Property and Composite Area

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