Spring Block 4

Perimeter and area

© White Rose Education 2022

 Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area

Small steps

Step 1 Perimeter of rectangles

Step 2 Perimeter of rectilinear shapes

Step 3 Perimeter of polygons

Step 4 Area of rectangles

Step 5 Area of compound shapes

Step 6 Estimate area

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 1

Perimeter of rectangles

Notes and guidance Key questions

In this small step, children build on learning from earlier years • What does “perimeter” mean?
to find the perimeters of rectangles by measuring the sides and
by calculation.
• If a rectangle has a perimeter of 16 cm, could its length be
10 cm? Why or why not?
Children know that the perimeter is the distance around the
outside of a two-dimensional shape. They recap measuring skills • Once you have measured the sides, how do you work out
the perimeter?
and recognise that they need to use a ruler accurately in order
to get the correct answer. A common mistake is to measure from • If you know the length and width of a rectangle, do you
the end of the ruler rather than from the zero mark. need to measure the other two sides?

Children then explore different methods of finding the perimeter, • Which method do you think is more efficient?
for example adding all four sides separately, adding the length
to the width and then doubling, or doubling the length and the
width and then adding the results, before deciding which they
Possible sentence stems
find most efficient. Children use their understanding of
perimeter to calculate missing lengths.
• The length is and the width is , so the
perimeter is

Things to look out for • + + + =2× +2×

• Children may line up the object they are measuring with • The perimeter of the rectangle is

the end of the ruler rather than the zero mark.

• When given the length and width of a rectangle, children

may just add the two amounts. National Curriculum links
• When measuring sides on a rectangle, children may get
• Measure and calculate the perimeter of composite rectilinear shapes
different dimensions for sides that should be equal. in centimetres and metres

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 1

Perimeter of rectangles

Key learning

• What is the length of each line? • Rosie and Eva are finding the perimeter of this rectangle.
7 cm

0 1 2 3 4 0 5 1 6 2 7 3 8 4 0 9 5 1106 2 7 3 8 4 9 5 106 7 8 9 10
4 cm
cm cm cm

Rosie 7 cm + 4 cm + 7 cm + 4 cm = 22 cm
• Measure the sides of the rectangles to work out their perimeters.

Eva 7 cm + 4 cm = 11 cm 11 cm × 2 = 22 cm

What is the same about the methods? What is different?

Use both methods to find the perimeter of the rectangle.
12 cm

3 cm

• The perimeter of a square is 16 cm.

What is the length of each side?
cm + cm + cm + cm = cm
• The perimeter of this rectangle is 18 cm.

• Draw a rectangle with a perimeter of 20 cm. What is the width of the rectangle? 6 cm
Compare your rectangle with a partner’s.
?
© White Rose Education 2022
Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 1

Perimeter of rectangles

Reasoning and problem solving

Teddy thinks this chew bar is 13.2 cm long. Esther thinks that she has
drawn all the possible rectangles
with a perimeter of 24 cm.

9 cm
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
cm
3 cm
Do you agree? No
Explain your answer. 5 cm multiple possible
answers, e.g.
A rectangle that is
No
11 cm by 1 cm has
7 cm a perimeter of
24 cm.
Is the statement always true, sometimes true or never true?

When the sides of a rectangle are all

odd numbers, the perimeter is even.
Do you agree with Esther?
Explain your answer.
Explain your answer.

always true

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 2

Perimeter of rectilinear shapes

Notes and guidance Key questions

In this small step, children build on their Year 4 learning to • What does “perimeter” mean?
calculate the perimeters of rectilinear shapes.
• What are the properties of a square/rectangle?
A rectilinear shape is a shape that has only straight sides and
right angles. This can look like two or more rectangles that • Why is this a rectilinear shape?

have been joined together and is sometimes referred to as a • How can you use the labelled sides to find the unknown side
compound shape. Children should be familiar with both terms. of the rectilinear shape? Do you need to add or subtract?
When calculating the perimeter of a rectilinear shape, encourage
children to mark sides that they have already included in their
• What strategies can you use to work out the perimeter?

total, to avoid counting sides more than once. • How do you know that you have included all the sides?

Children may notice the connection between the perimeter of • What is the perimeter of the shape?

some rectilinear shapes and the rectangle that can be drawn

around the shape. Possible sentence stems

Things to look out for • + = , so the longer side =

• Children may miscount when adding the sides of • – = , so the other shorter side =

rectilinear shapes. • The perimeter of the shape is

• If children do not have a secure understanding of

addition and subtraction, they may struggle when
finding missing sides.
National Curriculum links
• Children may find it difficult to see that the two shorter
sides are equal to the longer opposite side on the
rectilinear shape.
• Measure and calculate the perimeter of composite rectilinear shapes
in centimetres and metres

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 2

Perimeter of rectilinear shapes

Key learning

• Work out the perimeters of the shapes. • Find the unknown lengths (shown in red) and then the perimeter
1 cm of each shape.
6 cm
1 cm
5 cm
2 cm 9 cm
6 cm
3 cm
8 cm 4 cm
6 cm
10.5 cm

3 cm 9 cm 9 cm
1
What do you notice? 5 cm
2
3 cm 3 cm
• Work out the unknown lengths on each rectilinear shape.
2m 10 cm

• Work out the perimeters of the shapes.

7 cm 8 cm 8 cm
7m
m 14 cm
8 cm 10 cm 10 cm
2m 6 cm
cm 4 cm
2m
5 cm 4 cm

m cm
What do you notice?
© White Rose Education 2022
Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 2

Perimeter of rectilinear shapes

Reasoning and problem solving

Here is a rectilinear shape. Tiny is finding the perimeter

of this shape.
All the sides are the same length and
are a whole number of centimetres.

7 cm

12 cm

Which of these lengths could be the 48 cm, 36 cm,

perimeter of the shape? 120 cm I have enough
information to find Yes

48 cm 36 cm 80 cm any multiple of 12, the perimeter.

e.g. 24 cm, 72 cm

120 cm 66 cm

Explain your reasoning.

Can you think of any other Do you agree with Tiny?
possible perimeters? Explain your answer.

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 3

Perimeter of polygons

Notes and guidance Key questions

In this small step, children apply their knowledge of • What is a regular shape?
perimeter to find the perimeters of polygons and to solve
word problems.
• What is the difference between a square and a rectangle?

A polygon is a closed two-dimensional shape with straight

• Are all rectangles regular?

sides. The difference between regular and irregular shapes • How many sides does the shape have? What calculation will
could be a good discussion point during this step. A regular give you its perimeter?
shape is a two-dimensional shape with equal sides and • Would drawing the shape help you to solve the problem?
angles, so a square is a regular rectangle. When given the
length of one side, children use their knowledge of regular • What operation are you going to use? Why?

shapes to find the perimeter by multiplying by the number

of sides. Possible sentence stems
Children use the perimeter of a shape to find a missing side.
Using pictorial representations, such as drawing the shape • A shape has equal sides and angles.

and adding the known values, will support children when • The regular shape has sides and each side is
problem solving. Therefore, the perimeter is × =

Things to look out for

• To find the perimeter of the shape, I need to...

• The perimeter of the shape is

• Children may not be able to identify the relationship
between the given length, width or perimeter in
the problems. National Curriculum links
• Children may confuse the terms “regular” and “straight”
• Measure and calculate the perimeter of composite rectilinear shapes
and think that all rectangles are regular. in centimetres and metres

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 3

Perimeter of polygons

Key learning

• Work out the perimeter of each regular shape. • The perimeter of a tennis court is approximately 70 m.

9 cm Its width is 11 m.
What is the length of the tennis court?
6 cm

8 cm • A kitchen is 9 m long and 9 m wide.

A living room has a perimeter of 38 m.
Which room has the greater perimeter?
• Each regular hexagon on the grid has a side length of 2 cm.
What could the living room’s length and width be?

• Tom wants to find the perimeter of a swimming pool.

The length of the pool is three times the width.
The width is 16 m.
What is the length of the swimming pool?

What is the perimeter of the shaded shape? What is the perimeter of the swimming pool?

• Mo measures three sides of this regular octagon. • The perimeter of a regular hexagon is 222 cm.

The total length of the three sides is 21 cm. Work out the length of one side of the hexagon.

What is the perimeter of the octagon?

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 3

Perimeter of polygons

Reasoning and problem solving

Here is a square inside A school stage is made up of two parts.

another square.
The larger part has a perimeter of 24 m and a length of 8 m.
The smaller part has a perimeter of 16 m and a length of 4 m.

The perimeter
perimeter of the stage is
4m
= 16 m 24 m + 16 m = 40 m.
perimeter
8m
= 24 m

16 cm

One side of the inner square is

4 cm long.
Explain why Tiny is wrong.
The perimeter of the outer square
Find the actual perimeter of the stage.
is four times the perimeter of the
inner square.
What is the length of one side of Tiny’s total includes sides that are inside the shape.
the outer square?
Show your workings. 32 m

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 4

Area of rectangles

Notes and guidance Key questions

In Year 4, children learnt that area was the space inside a • What is area?
two-dimensional shape. In this small step, they recap this key
concept by making a visual comparison of two shapes without
• What is the difference between 1 cm and 1 cm2?

having to work out the area. They then go on to find the areas • Which shape has the greater/greatest area?
of shapes by counting squares, and are introduced to the Can you tell just by looking?
square centimetre (cm2) by counting squares on a centimetre • How can you work out area in a more efficient way?
squared grid. Highlight the difference between 1 cm and 1 cm2,
to ensure children understand that cm is a measure of length • Will multiplying the length by the width calculate
the area of any shape? Why/why not?
and cm2 is a measure of area.
Arrays can help children understand why they can multiply the
length by the width to calculate the area of a rectangle, which Possible sentence stems
they can then use to find the area of shapes not drawn on a
centimetre squared grid. Children should be made aware that • There are squares inside the shape, so the area of
the shape is squares.
cm2 is not the only unit used to measure area, and other units
such as mm2, m2 and km2 are also examples of units of area. • Area = ×

• × = , so the area of the shape is

Things to look out for

National Curriculum links
• When counting squares, children may count a square
twice or miss a square out when counting. • Measure and calculate the perimeter of composite rectilinear shapes
•
in centimetres and metres
Children may rely on counting squares to find area,
instead of multiplying the length by the width. • Calculate and compare the area of rectangles (including) squares),
including using standard units, square centimetres (cm2 and square

• Children may confuse the concepts of area and perimeter. metres (m2), and estimate the area of irregular shapes

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 4

Area of rectangles

Key learning

• Which shape has the greater area? • Shapes A and B are rectangles.
How do you know? Shape C is a square.
Work out the area of each shape.
• On the grid, the area of each square is 1 cm2
Find the area of each shape. 10 mm
12 m
A C 5 cm
B 3 mm

7m

• Complete the sentences to find the area of the rectangle. • Draw a rectangle with an area of 12 cm2 and label the lengths.
How many different rectangles can you find?
They do not have to be drawn to scale.
Compare rectangles with a partner.

There are rows of squares.

There are squares altogether. • The area of the rectangle is 18 cm2

× = 9 cm
There are columns of squares.
?
There are squares altogether.
× = What is the width of the rectangle?
What do you notice?
© White Rose Education 2022
Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 4

Area of rectangles

Reasoning and problem solving

Tiny thinks that these are the only Each orange square (O) has
rectangles that you can draw with an area of 24 cm2
an area of 24 cm2
6 cm B
8 cm O
No
3 cm 4 cm B

48 cm2
B
Do you agree with Tiny? O
Explain your answer. 72 cm2
B B
G G
24 cm2
Is the statement always true, B G G
sometimes true or never true?
144 cm2

A rectangle’s area is always Calculate the total orange area.

greater than its perimeter. sometimes true
Calculate the blue (B) area.
Calculate the green (G) area.
Give examples to support
What is the total area of the
your answer.
whole shape?

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 5

Area of compound shapes

Notes and guidance Key questions

In this small step, children learn to calculate the areas of • How do you work out the area of a rectangle?
compound shapes, which are shapes made up of two or more
other shapes. The focus is on rectilinear shapes.
• Are there any rectangles within the shape?

To support their understanding, give children compound shapes

• How can you split the shape?

for them to physically cut or split. They could find the area of • Is there more than one way to split the shape?
each rectangle and deduce the total area of the shape. Some • Do you get a different total area if you split the
children will split their compound shape differently from others. shape differently?
This will highlight that a compound shape is made up from other
shapes and that the area of the compound shape remains the
same, whichever way the shape is split. Possible sentence stems
Children apply their learning from earlier steps to find missing
• To find the area of the compound shape, I need to split it
lengths on the shape to support finding the area. into and then ...

Things to look out for

• Area of rectangle A =
Area of rectangle B =

• Children may rely on counting squares to find area, Total area = + =

instead of multiplying the length by the width for the area
of each rectangle.
National Curriculum links
• Children need to be secure in finding missing lengths of
shapes by adding or subtracting known lengths. • Measure and calculate the perimeter of composite rectilinear shapes
in centimetres and metres
• Children need to be careful when splitting up compound
• Calculate and compare the area of rectangles (including) squares),
shapes to make sure they know which lengths correspond including using standard units, square centimetres (cm2 and square
to which shape. metres (m2), and estimate the area of irregular shapes

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 5

Area of compound shapes

Key learning

• A compound shape is made up of two rectangles, A and B. • Find the areas of the compound shapes.
1 cm 11 cm
1 cm 9 cm
7 cm
3 cm
6 cm
B 3 cm 6 cm
A
5 cm

What is the area of A? • Whitney has found the area of this compound shape.
1 cm
What is the area of B?
1 cm
What is the area of the compound shape?
7 × 5 = 35
35 – 3 = 32
• Find the area of the compound shape. 1 cm
The area is 32 cm2
How many ways can you split 1 cm
the compound shape in order
to work out the area? Explain why Whitney’s method works. 1 cm
Compare methods with a partner. Use Whitney’s method to find 1 cm
the area of the shape.

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 5

Area of compound shapes

Reasoning and problem solving

Tiny puts three 7 cm by 4 cm The area of the shape is 69 cm2

rectangles next to each other. 13 cm

3 cm
42 cm

7 cm

What is the area of the compound

shape? 84 cm2 Work out the perimeter of the shape.

Yes
The compound shape is made
It does not matter up of three squares.
which way round I put the
rectangles. The shape will still
have the same area. 40 cm

The area of each square is 25 cm2

Do you agree with Tiny?
What is the perimeter of the
Explain your reasoning. compound shape?

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 6

Estimate area

Notes and guidance Key questions

In this small step, children use their knowledge of counting • What does “approximate” mean?
squares to estimate the areas of non-rectilinear shapes.
• What does “estimate” mean?
Children should be aware that the estimate is not exact and
other people may find a different estimate. One way to obtain
• How many whole squares are covered?

an estimate is to find the total number of complete squares, • How many part squares are more than half covered?
then include a square if more than half of it is coloured, but not • Are there any part-covered squares that you could combine
if less than half is coloured. Children use their knowledge of to make a full square?
fractions to estimate how much of a square is covered.
• Does it matter if your answer is not exactly the same as
For larger shapes, the areas of rectangles within them can a partner’s? Why/why not?
be found by multiplying the length by the width, rather than
counting all the squares individually.
Possible sentence stems
To avoid repetition or miscounting, children can physically
annotate when counting squares. An alternative method is to • whole squares are covered.
match up part-covered squares to create wholes, but this is
more demanding and time consuming. • squares are more than half covered.

• Estimate of the total area = + = cm2

Things to look out for

National Curriculum links
• Children may struggle to identify which part-covered
• Calculate and compare the area of rectangles (including squares),
squares are more than half covered.
including using standard units, square centimetres (cm²) and square
• Children may miscount or include the same square twice. metres (m²), and estimate the area of irregular shapes

© White Rose Education 2022

Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 6

Estimate area

Key learning

• Jack estimates the size of the pond as 8 m2 • Estimate the area of each leaf.
1m 1 cm 1 cm

1m 1 cm 1 cm

Which area was easier to estimate? Why?

How do you think Jack made his estimate?
Compare answers with a partner.

• Here is a shape on a centimetre squared grid.

1 cm • Draw a circle on centimetre squared paper.
Estimate the area of your circle.
1 cm
Ask a partner to estimate the area of your circle.
Compare your estimates.

• Trace some other non-rectilinear shapes onto centimetre

squared paper and estimate their areas.
Does where you put the shape on the grid make a difference
How many full squares are covered? to your estimate?
How many squares are more than half covered? Compare answers with a partner.
Estimate the area of the shape.
© White Rose Education 2022
Year 5 | Spring term | Block 4 – Perimeter and area | Step 6

Estimate area

Reasoning and problem solving

Amir is finding the area of the shape.

1 cm

1 cm

Use centimetre squared paper.

Draw a “Pirate Island” to be used as
a treasure map. Compare answers
No
as a class.
It is only possible Each square represents 4 m2
to estimate the The Pirate Island must have a total area
area of this shape. of 248 m2
The island must include these features:

• lake with a total area of 58 m2

• forests with a total area of 86 m2

Do you agree with Amir?
• mountains with a total area of 92 m2
Explain your answer
• marshes with a total area of 12 m2

© White Rose Education 2022