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Features

The goal and its "I can" line, what to get ready and the words to use
A 45 minute lesson in five steps (warm up, teach with words to say, try it together, practice, exit ticket)
Questions to ask, and the mistakes students make and what to do about them
Ideas for students who need help or are ready for more
Each plan ends with the Animal Math worksheets, worksheet makers and quiz for that lesson
Lessons: what area is, square units, drawing a shape with an area, tiling a rectangle, length times width, area stories, splitting a rectangle and shapes made of rectangles

3rd Grade Math CurriculumUnit 4

These are the lesson plans for Unit 4 of 14 in the 3rd Grade Math Curriculum: 125 lessons in teaching order, week by week, each with a lesson plan and an exit ticket.

← Previous unitUnit 3: Multiplication and Division Facts Next unit →Unit 5: Place Value and Rounding

Also for this unit: exit tickets, pre-check, unit review and test. See the whole year

Resources for Each Lesson

Everything each lesson plan points to, with links. Sheet numbers count worksheets: a color pack prints each sheet again in black and white.

4.1 What area is

PrintableArea by Counting Squares: sheets 1-3
QuizArea and Perimeter Quiz: the Count Squares level
Exit ticket3rd Grade Area Exit Tickets: Exit Ticket 4.1

4.2 Square units

PrintableArea by Counting Squares: sheet 5
MakerGraph Paper: Paper Type Square Grid, Square Size 1 Centimeter
QuizArea and Perimeter Quiz: the Count Squares level
Exit ticket3rd Grade Area Exit Tickets: Exit Ticket 4.2

4.3 Draw a shape with an area

PrintableArea by Counting Squares: sheet 4
MakerGraph Paper: Paper Type Square Grid, Square Size 1 Centimeter
QuizArea and Perimeter Quiz: the Count Squares level
Exit ticket3rd Grade Area Exit Tickets: Exit Ticket 4.3

4.4 Tile a rectangle

PrintableArea of Rectangles: sheets 1-2
MakerMultiplication Arrays: Equation Type Multiplication, Maximum Factor Up to 10
QuizArea and Perimeter Quiz: the Multiply Sides level
Exit ticket3rd Grade Area Exit Tickets: Exit Ticket 4.4

4.5 Multiply the side lengths

PrintableArea of Rectangles: sheet 3
QuizArea and Perimeter Quiz: the Multiply Sides level
Exit ticket3rd Grade Area Exit Tickets: Exit Ticket 4.5

4.6 Area stories

PrintableArea of Rectangles: sheet 5
QuizArea and Perimeter Quiz: the Multiply Sides level
Exit ticket3rd Grade Area Exit Tickets: Exit Ticket 4.6

4.7 Split a rectangle to multiply

PrintableArea of Rectangles: sheet 4
PrintableBreak Apart to Multiply: sheet 3
QuizArea and Perimeter Quiz: the Shapes Made of Rectangles level
Exit ticket3rd Grade Area Exit Tickets: Exit Ticket 4.7

4.8 Shapes made of rectangles

PrintableArea of Composite Shapes: sheets 1-5
QuizArea and Perimeter Quiz: the Shapes Made of Rectangles level
Exit ticket3rd Grade Area Exit Tickets: Exit Ticket 4.8

Skills Covered

Area as unit squares with no gaps or overlaps
Square centimeters, square inches and other units
Draw a shape with a given area
Tile a rectangle: rows times squares in a row

Multiply the side lengths
Area stories, and a missing side
Split a rectangle to multiply (the distributive property)
Shapes made of rectangles

How to Use This Pack

Eight lesson plans, one for each lesson of a 3rd grade unit on area, in teaching order, after an overview page that lays the unit out day by day: a pre-check, the eight lessons, a review and the unit test. Each plan fits on one page. It gives the goal, what to get ready, the words to use, the lesson in five steps with the words to say, questions to ask, common mistakes and what to do about them, and the Animal Math worksheets, makers and quiz for the lesson.

In the Classroom

Print the unit, or just the day's page, and teach from it. Each lesson takes about 45 minutes: a 5 minute warm up, 10 minutes of teaching, 10 minutes together, 15 minutes of practice and an exit ticket at the end. Keep square tiles and grid paper out all unit: the first lessons are hands-on. The exit tickets and the unit test are separate packs, made for these lessons, and the plans use other rectangles than they do.

At Home

Teaching at home? Use the warm up and the "Try it together" step as a short lesson, and the "Words to use" as the way to talk about it. Sticky notes, a tile floor or squares cut from paper work as well as square tiles. The mistakes to watch for are the ones most children make.

Tips for Success

Read the "Watch for" box before the lesson: it is what to listen for while students work
Say the unit every time: square centimeters, not centimeters
Let students tile a rectangle before they multiply its sides
Sort the exit tickets into got it, almost and not yet to plan the next day
Use the help and challenge ideas for small groups during practice

Common Core Standards Alignment

This pack supports the following Common Core State Standards for Mathematics:

3.OA.B.5 Use the commutative, associative and distributive properties to multiply and divide, such as finding 7 × 8 from 7 × 5 and 7 × 3.
3.MD.C.5a Know that a square with 1-unit sides has an area of one square unit and can be used to measure area.
3.MD.C.5b Know that a flat shape exactly covered by some number of unit squares, with no spaces or overlapping, has that many square units of area.
3.MD.C.6 Find an area by counting how many unit squares cover it, in square centimeters, meters, inches, feet or made-up units.
3.MD.C.7a Tile a rectangle with whole-number sides and show that the number of tiles matches multiplying its length by its width.
3.MD.C.7b Multiply length by width to get the area of whole-number rectangles in story and math problems, and picture products as rectangles.
3.MD.C.7c Use tiles or area models to show that splitting a rectangle's side into two parts splits its area into two products (the distributive property).
3.MD.C.7d Find the area of shapes made of rectangles by splitting them into separate rectangles and adding their areas, including in real problems.

3rd Grade Area Lesson Plans

3rd Grade3rd Grade Math Curriculum

Lesson plans for every lesson of a unit on area, from covering a shape with unit squares to multiplying side lengths, splitting rectangles and adding the parts of shapes made of rectangles. Each one-page plan gives a lesson in five steps, common mistakes and the worksheets to use, after a unit overview.

Download PDF

What’s Included

8 one-page lesson plans, one for each lesson of the unit
A unit overview: the unit day by day, what to get ready, how each lesson goes
Words to say, questions to ask and common mistakes for every lesson
The worksheets, makers and quiz for each lesson (9 pages in all)

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