Lesson 7 Different Square Units (Part 2)

    • Let’s learn about larger square units.

Warm-up Notice and Wonder: A Bigger Square

What do you notice? What do you wonder?

Photograph. Person holding large square. Playground in background.

Activity 1 Square Feet and Square Meters

  1. This is a square meter.

    Photograph of girl with square meter. Length, almost full arm length. Width, about head to knees.

    What kinds of areas would make sense to measure with square meters? Be ready to explain your reasoning.

  2. This is a square foot.

    Photograph of girl with square foot. 

    What kinds of areas would make sense to measure with square feet? Be ready to explain your reasoning.

Activity 2 Which Square Unit?

Problem 1

For each area tell if you would use square centimeters, square inches, square feet, or square meters to measure it and why you chose that unit.

  1. The area of a baseball field

  2. The area of a cover of a book you’re reading

  3. The area of our classroom

  4. The area of a piece of paper

  5. The area of the top of a table

  6. The area of the screen on a phone

Problem 2

Choose the area that best matches each item. Be ready to explain your reasoning.

  • About 9 square inches

  • About 3 square feet

  • About 55 square centimeters

  • About 55 square meter

  1. A playing card

  2. The floor of a classroom

  3. A sticky note

  4. The top of a student desk

Activity 3 Area Scavenger Hunt

Find some object or space that you would measure with square inches, square centimeters, square feet, and square yards.

area

square unit and reasoning

Example: a piece of paper

Example: “I think it can fit about 8 inches across and 10 inches down, so square inches work well. It can be measured in square centimeters, too, but would just take a lot more squares. Square feet and square meters would be too large.”

Practice Problem

Problem 1

For each object, decide if you would use square centimeters, square inches, square feet, or square meters to measure its area. Explain your reasoning.

  1. a baseball field

  2. a table top

  3. a cell phone screen