Area measures the space INSIDE a shape.

The area of this rectangle is the entire green portion.

You can find the area of any shape, but we will only be finding the area of squares and rectangles.

In the rectangle above, the area is how many unit squares there are in the whole rectangle. If you count them all up there are 8 square units. In smaller rectangles and squares that show the unit squares inside, it might be easiest to just count all the squares to find the area, but there are really big shapes that this strategy would take a really long time.

Another way to find area is to multiply the length and width. So to find the width of this rectangle, look at the squares on the side (2 squares). Then, I would count the squares on the for length's side (4 squares). Then, I could multiply these together. 2 units x 4 units=8 square units.

Multiplication works really well on the smaller rectangles and squares too like this one.

The area of this would be 5 cm x 3 cm = 15 cm.

Usually, when you are asked to find the area of a square or rectangle, you won't see the unit squares inside of it. You'll just see the plain rectangle or square like this...

In this case, the multiplication strategy would work the best because you can't see the unit squares! So again, the formula for area is length times the width so 3 yards x 8 yards.

The formula is the same for finding the area of squares. But, because squares have the same side length on all four sides, we only need to know one side and multiply that side by two.

All the sides are the same length, so using the same formula (area= length x width), we would multiply 5x5 to get 25 square centimeters

How is Area used in the real world?

Area is helpful outside the classroom too! Area helps people every day figure out how much space is in a room which is helpful in planning to build a house. Other ways people use area in our every day lives include finding out how big a wall is for a painting project, or planning space for a garden, etc.