In previous lessons, students found the areas of rectangles with tiles, grids, partial grids, or linear measurements marked along the sides of the rectangle. Students also used rulers to find the areas of rectangles.

The problems in this lesson are about a community garden. Consider launching the lesson with a read-aloud of City Green by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan to get students thinking about different aspects of a community garden. Students might draw squares within rectangles, draw tick marks on side lengths, count groups, or multiply to find area in this lesson. Any reasoning that makes sense to them is acceptable.

Which question did you ask today that best supported students’ understanding of area within a context? What did students say or do that showed the question was effective?