Description
What our Plane Figures and Square Units lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Plane Figures and Square Units teaches students how to use unit squares to determine the area of a plane figure. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to cover a plane figure without gaps or overlaps with unit squares in order to determine the area. This lesson is for students in 3rd grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the blue box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.
Options for Lesson
Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. One optional adjustment to the lesson activity is to have your students create and measure their own plane figures. To add to this lesson, you can talk to your students about how land is divided into acres and measured. You could also have your students measure the classroom or objects in the classroom using the unit square.
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
PLANE FIGURES AND SQUARE UNITS LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Plane Figures and Square Units
The Plane Figures and Square Units lesson plan includes two content pages. Unit squares are squares with a side length of one unit. The area of a unit square is one square unit. We measure area in square units. To find the area, we count the number of square units inside of the shape.
The lesson includes an example shape with seven unit squares. The area of this shape is seven square units. When finding the area, the square units can’t have any gaps and can’t overlap.
The lesson illustrates how to find the area of a rectangle using unit squares. To do this, you place unit squares next to each other without gaps and without overlapping. In this example, it takes eight unit squares to cover the entire shape, so the area is 8 square units.
The lesson closes with two examples of how not to use unit squares to find the area of a shape. In the first, someone left gaps in between the unit squares, which is not allowed. In the second, someone overlapped the unit squares, which is also not allowed.
To find the area of a plane figure using unit squares, you much make sure there are no gaps and that the unit squares do not overlap. You can use different sized unit squares to measure figures, as long as you use a consistent size for the whole figure.
PLANE FIGURES AND SQUARE UNITS LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Plane Figures and Square Units lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.
UNIT SQUARES AND RECTANGLES ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
For the activity worksheet, students will use a unit square and a rectangle to measure figures. They will trace the unit square onto figures provided by the teacher without any overlap or gaps.
Students can also work in pairs to measure the same object using two different sized unit squares. The teacher can also tape the figures around the room or use stations for students.
COLOR AND CUT PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet asks students to color and cut out the three unit squares printed on the worksheet. They will then use them to find the area of the figures shown on the worksheet, recording their answers on the worksheet.
PLANE FIGURES AND SQUARE UNITS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
For the homework assignment, students will use the unit square to find the area of each figure on the worksheet. They will also answer questions about how to use unit squares to measure area.
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes answer keys for the practice worksheet and the homework assignment. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
