Becca Petras

Math Lesson Plan

Grade level: 3rd grade

Topic: Find the area of a rectangle using the formula of multiplying the length and width of a
rectangle.

Common core standard for 3rd graders:

C. Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to
addition.

7. 3.MD.C.7 Relate area to the operations of multiplication and addition.

a. Find the area of a rectangle with whole-number side lengths by tiling it, and show that
the area is the same as would be found by multiplying the side lengths.

b. Multiply side lengths to find areas of rectangles with whole-number side lengths in the
context of solving real world and mathematical problems, and represent whole-number
products as rectangular areas in mathematical reasoning.

Standards for Mathematical Practice:

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
a. Mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning
of a problem and looking for entry points to its solution.
i. My students will learn how to solve for the area of a rectangular object by
using the Length x Width formula. They will understand why we can use
this formula and why the area of a rectangular can be found this way. They
will be able to analyze and understand what the area means in each
possible solution. They can even check their answers to a problem using a
different method such as counting the 1-unit-by-1-unit squares that can
cover the rectangle. Students will understand why this is the same as doing
the area formula of Length x Width.

4. Model with mathematics.

a. Mathematically proficient students can apply the mathematics they know to solve
problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace.
i. My students will learn how to solve problems with areas that arise in
everyday life. Throughout the lesson I will give my students problems that
 relate to real world issues such as finding the area of a garden to know
how many flowers to plant. My students will be able to understand when
to use mathematics that involves finding areas to solve problems in real
world situations. They will be able to understand why the area formula for
a rectangular object works by using diagrams that split the rows into
groups of 1-unit-by-1-unit squares.

Mathematical Goals For the Lesson:

I want my student:

1. To know the formula for the area of a rectangle.

2. To understand why we can use the multiplication rule to find area and support this by
drawing pictures to demonstrate.
3. To start thinking about how we can use multiple side lengths to find the area of different
rectangles in the context of solving real world problems.

Warm up (5-10 minutes):

I will start off by reviewing the relevant material we learned earlier in the week. My students
have already learned a primitive way to find area area. They understand that area is
two-dimensional and can find the area by counting unit squares.

I will continue by reviewing area. I will ask students, “What does the area of an 8 square inch
rectangle mean?” I will then wait for a student to explain it in terms we have learned before.

Correct answer: It means that the shape can be covered, without gaps or overlaps, with a total of
eight 1-in-by-1-in squares, allowing for squares to be cut apart and pieces to be moved if
necessary.

I will then ask the students to find the area of a rectangle that has a length of 2 inches and a width
of 4 inches by counting the number of unit squares which are 1-in-by-1-in squares in the
rectangle. I will draw the rectangle below with the lines (see image 1).
(Image 1)

I will wait for the students to answer the question.

Correct answer 8 square inches.

I will then ask the students to think about how we can find the area of a rectangle without
counting the squares in the rectangle. I will say, “For example, if I drew this rectangle (see image
2 below), is there a faster way to figure out the area without finding the number of 1in-by-1in
squares that can cover this rectangle?”

(Image 2)

I will wait for a student response to this question, but this is something they have not yet learned.
My goal is to get them thinking about how we can solve this: how and why we can use
multiplication to find areas.

Correct answer: We can multiply the length by width to find the area. In this case, the width is 4
inches and the length is 2 inches so we can multiply 4 inches by 2 inches to find the area. The
total area as mentioned before is 8 square inches.

After a student attempts to answer my question, depending on if it is correct or not, I will clarify
that the relationship between the length and width and the area, a length of 2 inches and a width
of 4 inches, can be multiplied together to get a total area of 8 inches squared. I will then go into
my lesson and formally teach this topic to my students.

Instructional Activities (30-40 minutes):

Thinking activity: I will begin by introducing a large rectangle (one that would be difficult to
count all the tiles): a rectangle that has a length of 20 centimeters and a width of 50 centimeters.

I will draw this rectangle on the board (see image 3). I will ask my students, “Can we fill this
rectangle with 1cm-by-1cm squares and then count how many 1cm-by-1cm squares we can fit in
this rectangle to find the area?”

(Image 3)

I will wait for a response and then call on one of my students when they raise their hand. They
will probably say “yes,” which is the correct answer. I will agree with them, but state that if we
decided to draw 1cm-by-1cm squares to cover this area that would be a lot of squares and it
would take a really long time to count them all. I will then teach them the quicker way which we
started to discuss in our warm up.

First instructional activity: I will teach that the formula to find the area of a rectangle is

Area of a rectangle = Length x Width

Building on mathematical understanding: I will then explain why this works to my students. I
will use our previous example. I will say “Let's reflect back on the problem from our warm-up
exercise.” (See image 4).
(Image 4)

I will ask the students, “How many rows are in this picture?” I will remind them that rows go
horizontally and columns go vertically.

Correct Answer 2.

I will then ask, “How many 1in-by-1in squares are in each row?”

Correct answer: 4 1in-by-1in squares are in each row

I will then say to my students, “If each row has four squares in it and we have two rows, how can
we find the area?”

Correct answer: We can multiply the number of rows by the number of squares in each row.

I will wait for a student response and this will vary. I will then clarify to my students that instead
of counting up all the squares in this rectangle, we can break this rectangle down into two rows
with four squares in each row. If each row has four squares in it, we can count the number of
rows and multiply by four. I will demonstrate this by breaking the rows down into 2 groups of
four 1in-by-1in squares (see image 5)

One group with four 1in-by-1in squares in it

Second group with four 1in-by-1in squares in it

(Image 5)

As my students previously know, when we have groups with the same number of objects in it,
we can count up the number of objects and multiply the number of objects by the number of
groups. I will quickly remind my students of this rule by asking them, “When we have groups
with the same number of objects in it, what can we do and why?”

Correct answer: We can multiply the number of objects by the number of groups because each
group has the same number of objects.

I will state that for any rectangle, if we cover the rectangle with 1-unit-by-1-unit squares, then
there will be rows that represent the length with squares in each row that represent the width.
Therefore, each rectangle will have L rows with W 1-unit-by-1-unit square in each row so we
can multiply length by width to find the number of 1-unit-by-1-unit squares that are covering the
rectangle.

So the formula for area of a rectangle is: Length multiplied by Width

Area of a rectangle: L x W

Second instructional activity in groups:

I will split the class into their regular table groups and give the students 10 minutes to complete
the following activity. I will slightly introduce the topic of using area in the context of solving
real world problems:

Materials: I will provide the students with wooden 1-in-by-1-in squares. (see image 6)

(Image 6)
Question: Kate wants to find out how much coloring she has to do to color her whole sheet of
paper. What is the area of her sheet of paper that is a rectangle and has a length of 3 inches and a
width of 5 inches. Use the 1-in-by-1-in squares to illustrate this rectangular sheet of paper and
then use the area formula to calculate the area of this rectangle and determine how many square
inches Kate needs to color. Explain why this formula is valid with this example (hint: remember
how we can break the rectangle into groups!)
Correct answer: The rectangle below (see image 7) represents the rectangular piece of paper they
should make with their groups using the 1-in-by-1-in squares wooden squares. They should use
the formula A=LW which for this case is A= 3 inches x 5 inches = 15 inches squared.

(Image 7)

They should explain why this method works by placing the wooden squares up into groups by
rows. They should break the wooden blocks up into three rows with each row containing five
1-in-by-1-in squares. This means the sheet of paper can be covered with three groups of squares,
and each group has five 1-in-by-1-in squares. We can multiply the L rows, 3 in this case, by the
number of squares in each row which is W, 5 in this case. They should demonstrate the 3 groups
of 5 squares with the wooden squares (see image 8 below).

One group of five 1-in-by-1-in wooden squares

Second group of five 1-in-by-1-in wooden squares

Third group of five 1-in-by-1-in wooden squares

(Image 8)

Together as a class, I will call on students to answer and explain the area,which is 15 inches
squared. We will then discuss why we can multiply the length, which is 3, by the width, which is
5, to find the area of the sheet of paper. We will discuss how we can cover this paper with three
groups of five 1-in-by-1-in squares in each group.
Final activity (third): To end the lesson I will give the students a problem that we will do together
with the class. I will continue to introduce finding the area for a real world object. I will draw a
rectangle on the board that says it is 20 inches long and 50 inches wide (the rectangle would not
actually be 20 inches by 50 inches and the students will know it is just a scale). (See image 9)

(Image 9)

Question: Beth wants to find how many 1-in-by-1-in squares of flowers she can fit in her
rectangular garden. If her garden is 20 inches long and 50 inches wide, what would the area be?
Explain why this is the case.

I will wait for a response:

Correct answer is: Area = LW = 20 inches x 50 inches = 1000 inches squared. This is accurate
because we can make 20 rows with 50 1-in-by-1-in squares of flowers in each row therefore, we
can multiply the length by the width.

I will go over this as a class and explain that we can multiply the length times the width because
if we were going to lay 1-in-by-1-in squares of flowers in the garden, we could break these
squares of flowers into 20 groups with 50 1-in-by-1-in squares of flowers in each group.(See
image 10)

(Image 10)
Lesson Synthesis (5-10 minutes):

I will wrap up the lesson by reviewing what the students learned today. I will do this by asking
them a few questions and discussing the questions with the class.

I will first ask the students, “What is the formula for the area of a rectangle?”
Answer: Area = Length x Width (I will write this on the board)

I will ask the students, “What are some rectangular objects that we might want to find the area
of?”

Answers will vary: They can include, the area of a door, the area of a carpet, the area of a
swimming pool, the area of a sheet of paper, the area of a rectangular garden, the area of the
table, the area of a desk, etc.

I will then discuss with the students that these are objects we see in everyday life and that is why
it is important to know how to find areas.

The last question I will ask the students is, “Why can we multiply the length and width of a
rectangle to find the area of a rectangular object?”

Answer: The students say something about how we can break the object down into rows or
groups that each have the same number of 1-unit-by-1-unit squares. The number of rows/groups
represents the length and the number of 1-unit-by-1-unit squares in each group represents the
width.

As a class, we will end with a discussion of this question to ensure students understand the
importance of area and why we can use the area formula to find the area of a rectangular object.

Exit ticket (5- 10 minutes):

I will give the students an exit ticket and ask them to answer these questions. They will have 5
minutes to complete this short written activity.

The exit ticket will ask:

1. What is the formula for the area of a rectangle?

a. Answer Area= Length x Width
2. If we wanted to find the area of a rectangular carpet that has a length of 5 yards and a
width of 2 yards, what would the area be? Use the area formula to find the answer and
then show why this formula can work for example by drawing a picture and explaining
the picture.
a. Answer: we can do the area formula. Area = Length x Width
i. 5 yards x 2 yards = 10 yards squared
 ii. We can show why this works by splitting this rectangular carpet up into
groups: (Students must show how they can split this rectangle up into
groups by rows with two 1-yard-by-1-yard squares in each group

b.

i. One group of two 1-yard-by-1-yard squares

ii. Second group of two 1-yard-by-1-yard squares

iii. Third group of two 1-yard-by-1-yard squares

iv. Forth group of two 1-yard-by-1-yard squares

v. Fifth group of two 1-yard-by-1-yard squares

3. What is the area of this rectangle below? (See Image 11) The length is 6 inches and the
width is 10 inches. Use the area formula. (Answer 6 x 10 = 60 inches squared)

(Image 11)
a. How many rows are in this rectangle?
i. Answer: 6 rows
b. How many 1-in-by-1-in squares are in each row?
i. Answer: 10 1-in-by-1-in squares