Working with Square Centimetres

We can measure how much space a 2D shape occupies by counting how

many centimetre squares can fit inside it. This is the area of the shape.
Square centimetres are written in short as sq. cm. or cm2.

For example, the rectangle shown here

has an area of 18 square centimetres
(18 sq. cm).

Sometimes we may not be able to fit whole

square centimetres into a 2D shape. But we
can count two half squares as a whole one as
in this example.

Here we can count 4 whole squares.

There are also 8 half-squares that fit inside

the shape to make up another 4 squares. For

instance,

So altogether there are squares that fit inside

this shape to give it an area of 8 square centimetres (8sq. cm).

Areas Activity 1
Measuring the Area of Small 2D Shapes
Find the area of each shape drawn and write your answer next to it.
Remember to write down the correct unit for the area.

Area =

Area =

Area =

Area =

Area =

Area =

Areas Activity 2
Estimation
We can estimate how much space a surface occupies by comparing with the
area of familiar shapes. This activity explores the area of some familiar
surfaces.
1. Finding Hand Area
Place one of your hands flat on your desk. Estimate
how many square centimetres of the desk your hand is
covering.
Estimate:

sq. cm

Now place one hand on the square-centimetre grid below and carefully trace
around it. Colour and count the complete squares inside the outline of your
hand.

Whole Squares inside the hand outline:

sq. cm

Estimate how many whole squares would be made up putting all the partsquares together.
Square centimetres made up by part-squares:

My hand covers about

sq. cm

sq. cm

2. Estimation Using Hand Area

Use the outline of your hand that you drew to estimate
how many highlighter pens you can fit inside this area.
Estimate how much space a highlighter pen takes on
your desk.

Draw an outline of a highlighter pen on centimetre grid paper and work out its
area to check your estimate.

My highlighter pen covers about

sq. cm

How many times will your hand fit over the cover of your exercise book? Use
this to estimate the area of your books front cover.
Area of front cover

sq. cm

Estimate how many square centimetres of plastic would be

needed to completely cover your exercise book.