New
New
Year 5
Measure the area of flat shapes using square metres
You can measure the area of large shapes using square metres.
New
New
Year 5
Measure the area of flat shapes using square metres
You can measure the area of large shapes using square metres.
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- Area can be measured in square metres.
- You write square metres as m²
- Fractions of square metres can be added to make whole square metres.
Keywords
Square metre - A square metre is a unit of measure equal to a square that is one metre on each side.
Common misconception
Pupils may believe that an area of one square metre has to be in the shape of a square.
Take two large pieces of paper, each one square metre, and fold them in half in different ways. Bring them together to form a square metre.
This practical lesson is very open-ended. There are many possibilities for making rectilinear shapes with a given square area. They could explore large areas with metre squared pieces of paper and also consider different fractions of square metres.
Teacher tip
Licence
This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).
Lesson video
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Starter quiz
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6 Questions
Q1.
Which of these items is approximately a metre in length?
A laptop screen
The height of a house
The length of a school hall
Q2.
Match the item with the square unit that would be the most useful for finding its area.
a page in a book
a back garden
a blade of grass
a village
Q3.
Which of these is another way of writing 'square metres'?
2m
m2
Q4.
Which of these sets of fractions total one whole?
one quarter + one quarter
Q5.
What is the area of this shape? cm²
Q6.
What is the area of this shape? cm²
Exit quiz
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6 Questions
Q1.
Which of these surfaces would you measure using square metres?
The area of a town
The area of a reading book
Q2.
How many different ways can this value be expressed?
Four squares
4 squared
Q3.
Which value shows the best estimate of the whole area?
12 m²
14 m²
Q4.
True or false? This shape has an area of two square metres.
True. There are 2 squares that each have the area of one square metre.
Q5.
Match the shape to the total area.
3 m²
4 m²
2 m²
5 m²
Q6.
Which of the shapes have an area of 5 square metres?
a
c