Playing in the Sand!

Contributor: Lanette Judy. Lesson ID: 14136

Playing in the sand is a blast, just like discovering the area of a rectangle! What do you love to build in the sand? Discover how measuring space can be just as exciting!

30To1Hour
categories

Elementary, Math

subject
Math
learning style
Kinesthetic, Visual
personality style
Beaver
Grade Level
Intermediate (3-5)
Lesson Type
Skill Sharpener

Lesson Plan - Get It!

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Imagine you’re at the park and want to build a giant sandbox to hang out with all your friends. You want it to be a perfect rectangle.

To ensure everyone has enough room to dig and play, you must figure out how much space the sandbox will cover. This special space is called the area.

  • How do you find out how much area you need for your awesome sandbox?
  • Are you ready to create the ultimate sandbox for you and your friends?

Area of a Rectangle

First, you need to pick the perfect rectangle shape for your sandbox. You measure and find that your sandbox will be 2 feet long and 6 feet wide. It looks like this.

sandbox measurements

Now, find the area! The area is the space inside your rectangle, measured in square feet (sq. ft.).

To visualize this, you can create paper squares that are each 1 foot by 1 foot. These squares will help you see how many fit inside your sandbox.

sandbox broken into 1x1 foot squares

Now, count the squares you placed down.

There are 12 squares. So, the area of your sandbox is 12 sq. ft. Awesome job!

  • This process is easy when you have a smaller area, but what would it be like if you had a huge area to calculate?
  • How would this work for a giant bridge that was 20,000 ft long and 50,00 ft. wide?

That would be a lot of counting!

  • Is there an easier way?

Repeated Addition

You can use repeated addition instead of counting each square one by one.

sandbox with repeated addition

You see that each column has 2 squares, so instead of counting, you can add.

2 ft. + 2 ft.  + 2 ft.  + 2 ft.  + 2 ft.  + 2 ft. = 12 sq. ft.

That's much quicker!

  • But wait—what if you had to add 2 together 60 times?

Yikes! That's still a lot of work.

Multiplication to the Rescue

Here is a fun fact: Multiplication is like adding the same number over and over again!

sandbox with multiplication

To find the area using multiplication, multiply the length (6 ft) by the width (2 ft).

6 ft. x 2 ft = 12 sq. ft.

That's why multiplication is so cool—it helps you find the area so much faster!

Check out this video, which shows the process of finding an area using both repeated addition and multiplication.

  • Are you ready to watch?

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Remember, whenever you see a rectangle, you can find the area easily by multiplying the sides. It’s like having a superpower for measuring space!

Keep going to the Got It? section to order a giant rectangular pizza!

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