Finding Area

We have spent all sorts of time finding the perimeter of objects (the distance AROUND an object) and have moved on to finding area (the amount of space INSIDE an object).  The students were excited to find the area of different rooms in a doll house.  

The kids decided that squares would be the best shape to use to measure
the area because they can pack together with no spaces in between.

'I'm going to find the perimeter first then we can find the area.'

'We need more squares to fill it in.'

We ran out of room at the doll house so some groups used
parts of a shelf in the classroom.

Searching for squares...

After they found the area of their room they got to go 'shopping' for
furniture.  Many visited Home Depot or Ikea.

'The room is 46 post it notes.  We used green, white and pink (post it note paper).
To know how much it was we put numbers on it (they numbered the post it notes to count them).

'We had rows of 10 blocks so it was easy to count...just count by 10's.'

'We have rows of 11 so I just counted by 10's and then added one more for each row at the end.'