We learned how to find the area of a rectangle with a fractional side length.

Example: The shaded region has an area of because there are 4 groups of of a square unit shaded. The area is or because there are 8 shaded parts and each one is of a square unit.

We also learned to multiply a mixed number by a whole number. We used diagrams and expressions to see why our strategies work.

Example: To multiply  , we can use the expression . We can see both expressions represented by the shaded region in the diagram.

• The 2 rows of 3 and squares shaded show .
• The 2 rows of 3 squares shaded show .
• The 2 rows of  of a square shaded show .
• The shaded region in the diagram represents the area of a rectangle with the dimensions of units by 2 units.

So, the area of the shaded region is or square units.