MAFS.3.MD.3.5Archived Standard

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Recognize area as an attribute of plane figures and understand concepts of area measurement.
  1. A square with side length 1 unit, called “a unit square,” is said to have “one square unit” of area, and can be used to measure area.
  2. A plane figure which can be covered without gaps or overlaps by n unit squares is said to have an area of n square units.
General Information
Subject Area: Mathematics
Grade: 3
Domain-Subdomain: Measurement and Data
Cluster: Level 1: Recall
Cluster: Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to addition. (Major Cluster) -

Clusters should not be sorted from Major to Supporting and then taught in that order. To do so would strip the coherence of the mathematical ideas and miss the opportunity to enhance the major work of the grade with the supporting clusters.

Date Adopted or Revised: 02/14
Content Complexity Rating: Level 1: Recall - More Information
Date of Last Rating: 02/14
Status: State Board Approved - Archived
Assessed: Yes
Test Item Specifications
    Also assesses: MAFS.3.MD.3.6
  • Assessment Limits :
    Items may include plane figures that can be covered by unit squares. Items may not include exponential notation for unit abbreviations (e.g., “cm² ”).
  • Calculator :

    No

  • Context :

    Allowable

Sample Test Items (2)
  • Test Item #: Sample Item 2
  • Question:

    The area of Alex's floor is 30 square feet. Select all the floors that could be Alex's.

     

  • Difficulty: N/A
  • Type: MS: Multiselect

Related Courses

This benchmark is part of these courses.
5012050: Grade Three Mathematics (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current))
7712040: Access Mathematics Grade 3 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2018, 2018 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
5012055: Grade 3 Accelerated Mathematics (Specifically in versions: 2019 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current))
5012015: Foundational Skills in Mathematics 3-5 (Specifically in versions: 2019 - 2022, 2022 - 2024, 2024 and beyond (current))

Related Access Points

Alternate version of this benchmark for students with significant cognitive disabilities.

Related Resources

Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this benchmark.

Formative Assessments

Using Tiles of Different Sizes:

Students consider whether tiling a rectangle with different sized tiles is appropriate when calculating area.

Type: Formative Assessment

Unit Square:

Students are asked to explain how the area of a rectangle can be calculated and their responses are examined for references to the unit square as the unit of measurement.

Type: Formative Assessment

Overlapping Tiles:

Students are asked to evaluate another student's area calculation that involves overlapping tiles.

Type: Formative Assessment

Calculating Area:

Students discuss the meaning of area and are asked about the kinds of figures for which area can be calculated.

Type: Formative Assessment

Lesson Plans

Make A Mighty Monster: Practice with Area and Perimeter:

In this culminating activity, students will use their knowledge of area and perimeter to create a "Mighty Monster" following specific criteria. Given a designated area, students will make their monster on centimeter grid paper and calculate both the area and perimeter of each body part, as well as the combined area and perimeter of the entire figure.

Type: Lesson Plan

Area Architects, Lesson 1:

In this unit on area, students explore geometric measurement by becoming "Area Architects" in order to learn the concepts of area. Using all five lessons will allow the students to discover, explore and eventually relate area to multiplication and addition. This lesson is the first lesson of the unit. In Lesson 1, students will develop strategies for finding area by counting square units. Students will learn the importance of accurately measuring area by exploring the concepts of area in realistic applications.

Type: Lesson Plan

Best Vegetable Garden:

The students will plan a vegetable garden, deciding which kinds of vegetables to plant, how many plants of each kind will fit, and where each plant will be planted in a fixed-area garden design. Then they will revise their design based on new garden dimensions and additional plant options.  Students will explore the concept of area to plan their garden and they will practice solving 1 and 2-step real-world problems using the four operations to develop their ideas.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Animal Habitat MEA:

Animal Habitat MEA is where the students will help a pet store choose which habitat they should buy to house their snake and lizard families. The students will solve an open-ended problem and give details on the process that they used to solve the problem.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

What Does Your Garden Grow?:

In this model eliciting activity students use data about the temperature and water requirements of plants to figure out when the plants should be planted. They also use data such as space requirements and time until harvest to make judgments about which plants would best suit the needs of students planning a school garden in Florida.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

Playground Protection:

In this Model Eliciting Activity, MEA students will decide which type of protective surface should be put in under a new playground unit. They will consider many factors before ranking their decisions about the best surface.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Make A Mighty Monster: Practice with Area and Perimeter:

In this lesson, students will use their knowledge of area and perimeter to create a "Mighty Monster”. Given specific criteria related to area and perimeter, students will make their monster on centimeter grid paper and calculate both the area and perimeter of each body part to explore the differences between the two types of measurement.

Type: Lesson Plan

Area Designers:

This hands-on lesson makes a real-world connection for students in measuring area by counting square units. Students become area designers during an activity that illustrates area, and then make a real-world connection with area when they are shown a residential blueprint. Students gain practice determining the area and recording the area of rectangular rooms in square units.

Type: Lesson Plan

Original Student Tutorials

Ariana Explores Area:

Ariana explores Area as she plants vegetables in her rectangular garden boxes. Help Ariana cover rectangles with unit squares without gaps or overlaps and count the squares to find the area with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Building a Square Garden:

Learn to identify one square unit that can be used to measure area in this brief interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Techies Talk Area:

Discover how square units can be used to cover the interior of a rectangle and measure its area of a rectangle in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Problem-Solving Task

The Square Counting Shortcut:

This is a rectangle subdivision task; ideally instead of counting each square. students should break the letters into rectangles, multiply to find the areas, and add up the areas. However, students should not be discouraged from using individual counting to start if they are stuck. Often students will get tired of counting and devise the shortcut method themselves.

Type: Problem-Solving Task

Professional Development

What Does It Mean To Measure?:

This is a professional development session from the Learning Math series from Annenberg. Learners will begin to explore the questions "What can be measured?" and "What does it mean to measure something?" Learners identify measurable properties of objects such as weight, surface area, and volume, and discuss which metric units are appropriate for measuring these properties. Learners will also learn that measurement is, by its nature, approximate. Finally, learners will consider how to make measurements using nonstandard units. This session features a number of problems for learners to solve and open-ended questions to discuss, videos that demonstrate measurement techniques, and an interactive activity that asks learners to construct shapes using different size triangles to foster understanding of area and perimeter. There are also nine homework problems in which learners are asked to generate different measurements, graph measurements, and evaluate the appropriateness of the measurements generated using a data chart. Many of the professional development activities can be used directly in the classroom.

Type: Professional Development

STEM Lessons - Model Eliciting Activity

Animal Habitat MEA:

Animal Habitat MEA is where the students will help a pet store choose which habitat they should buy to house their snake and lizard families. The students will solve an open-ended problem and give details on the process that they used to solve the problem.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Best Vegetable Garden:

The students will plan a vegetable garden, deciding which kinds of vegetables to plant, how many plants of each kind will fit, and where each plant will be planted in a fixed-area garden design. Then they will revise their design based on new garden dimensions and additional plant options.  Students will explore the concept of area to plan their garden and they will practice solving 1 and 2-step real-world problems using the four operations to develop their ideas.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Playground Protection:

In this Model Eliciting Activity, MEA students will decide which type of protective surface should be put in under a new playground unit. They will consider many factors before ranking their decisions about the best surface.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

What Does Your Garden Grow?:

In this model eliciting activity students use data about the temperature and water requirements of plants to figure out when the plants should be planted. They also use data such as space requirements and time until harvest to make judgments about which plants would best suit the needs of students planning a school garden in Florida.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

MFAS Formative Assessments

Calculating Area:

Students discuss the meaning of area and are asked about the kinds of figures for which area can be calculated.

Overlapping Tiles:

Students are asked to evaluate another student's area calculation that involves overlapping tiles.

Unit Square:

Students are asked to explain how the area of a rectangle can be calculated and their responses are examined for references to the unit square as the unit of measurement.

Using Tiles of Different Sizes:

Students consider whether tiling a rectangle with different sized tiles is appropriate when calculating area.

Original Student Tutorials Mathematics - Grades K-5

Ariana Explores Area:

Ariana explores Area as she plants vegetables in her rectangular garden boxes. Help Ariana cover rectangles with unit squares without gaps or overlaps and count the squares to find the area with this interactive tutorial.

Building a Square Garden:

Learn to identify one square unit that can be used to measure area in this brief interactive tutorial.

Techies Talk Area:

Discover how square units can be used to cover the interior of a rectangle and measure its area of a rectangle in this interactive tutorial.

Student Resources

Vetted resources students can use to learn the concepts and skills in this benchmark.

Original Student Tutorials

Ariana Explores Area:

Ariana explores Area as she plants vegetables in her rectangular garden boxes. Help Ariana cover rectangles with unit squares without gaps or overlaps and count the squares to find the area with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Building a Square Garden:

Learn to identify one square unit that can be used to measure area in this brief interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Techies Talk Area:

Discover how square units can be used to cover the interior of a rectangle and measure its area of a rectangle in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Problem-Solving Task

The Square Counting Shortcut:

This is a rectangle subdivision task; ideally instead of counting each square. students should break the letters into rectangles, multiply to find the areas, and add up the areas. However, students should not be discouraged from using individual counting to start if they are stuck. Often students will get tired of counting and devise the shortcut method themselves.

Type: Problem-Solving Task

Parent Resources

Vetted resources caregivers can use to help students learn the concepts and skills in this benchmark.

Problem-Solving Task

The Square Counting Shortcut:

This is a rectangle subdivision task; ideally instead of counting each square. students should break the letters into rectangles, multiply to find the areas, and add up the areas. However, students should not be discouraged from using individual counting to start if they are stuck. Often students will get tired of counting and devise the shortcut method themselves.

Type: Problem-Solving Task