Teaching Area With Multiplication | Free Measurement Lesson Plan for 3rd Grade

Are you teaching area with multiplication in 3rd grade? This can be a tricky concept for kids, and one that requires a lot of practice, real-world application, and hands-on learning opportunities. If you’re looking for engaging and effective activities to bring this concept to life, read on for activity ideas and a free measurement lesson plan using the area multiplication model! This is a sample lesson plan straight out of my 3rd Grade Guided Math Unit on Measurement, Area and Perimeter, Capacity, and Mass!

Teaching Area with Multiplication in 3rd Grade

In 3rd grade, students take their measurement skills to the next level as they dive into the concepts of area, perimeter, capacity, and mass. These are real-world skills that students will use for the rest of their life, and there are so many different ways to explore these concepts with your students.

Using the guided math framework for teaching, students will have the opportunity to explore these measurement concepts both as a collaborative whole group, independently, and in differentiated small groups, giving them the tailored instruction and practice they need!

Read on to learn how to teach area with multiplication in a hands-on and exciting way for your students!

How To Teach the Area Multiplication Model

When teaching the area multiplication model to your students, start by giving them concrete (hands-on) examples, pictorial (visual) representations, and then move on to abstract learning and practice.

Area Anchor Chart

It’s so important to introduce the area multiplication model by creating an area anchor chart as a whole class. This allows you to break the concept down and teach students the rules and basics of calculating area with multiplication. This is great for your visual and auditory learners.

After creating the anchor chart, have students complete a mini-version of the area anchor chart in their math journals to keep for reference later. This is great for your kinesthetic learners who take-in information by “doing” and writing it down themselves.

Area With Cheez-Its Work Mat

What better way to engage your 3rd graders when learning about area with multiplication than by using FOOD?! Students will draw a task card and use Cheez-Its to build the shape with the amount of rows and columns on the area work mat. Then, they’ll calculate the area using both repeated addition and multiplication.

This is a great whole group activity to get students engaged and give them meaningful practice with several different areas.

Geoboard Area

Geoboards are one of the most engaging and effective tools to use to practice area. Students love creating with geoboards, so they may not even realize they’re learning! With this geoboard area activity, students will draw a geoboard task card, build the figure using their geoboards, and record their figure and area on the recording sheet.

This is a perfect small group activity that you can tailor to meet your students’ needs. You can get this activity in my free measurement lesson plan for 3rd grade (which you can grab below in this blog post).

Area With Multiplication Tiles

The next activity for teaching the area multiplication model uses square tiles and length/width task cards. Students will draw a task card and create the figure according to the square units using square tiles. Then, they’ll record and calculate the area using multiplication on their recording sheet. This whole group activity is also found in my free lesson plan.

During this whole group activity, discuss the lengths and widths and talk through how a square tile is equal to one square unit, encouraging mathematical discussion.

Area with multiplication activity with tiles

Area Zoo

One of my favorite activities for teaching area with multiplication is called “My Area Zoo.” This is such a fun, real-world activity for students to complete independently while practicing the area multiplication model. I love how creative students can be as they decide where each animal will go in the zoo, map out their space, and calculate the area that they get in the zoo to find the square units. You can find this activity in my free measurement lesson plan for 3rd grade as well.

Real World Area Powerpoint

While hands-on activities are my favorite way to teach concepts like area, I also like to incorporate real world activities that connect the concept to students’ interests and prior knowledge. This Real World Area Powerpoint activity is a great way for students to practice calculating the areas of various objects that they already are familiar with. These areas and calculations are accurate with their real sizes.

Roll The Area

Using dice is a great way to differentiate instruction and give students the opportunity to practice skills at their level. This Roll The Area activity has students create rows and columns of various lengths on grid paper depending on the length and width they roll. Then, they use the area multiplication model to find the square units. This activity is done independently and can be differentiated by giving students 6-sided or 10-sided dice.

I hope you try out some of these activities and ideas for teaching area with multiplication in your classroom.

You can grab the Area With Multiplication, My Area Zoo, and Geoboard Area activities in my free sample measurement lesson plan for 3rd grade below. Simply fill out the form and it’ll be delivered right to you!

You can find all of these area and measurement activities and so much more in the guided math units below or in my TPT store!