Fin and Snoot calculate the area of their garden to cover it with shiny bogmany bluegrass.
NARRATOR: Hello Snoot, hello Finn.
ALIENS: (Alien language)
NARRATOR: What are you doing?
ALIEN: (Alien language)
NARRATOR: I see, you’ve just laid down some squares of bogmany bluegrass in the front garden. It’s so bright and shiny!
How many squares of grass did you use?
ALIEN: Er…
NARRATOR: Let’s count them shall we? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Good Job!
ALIEN: (Alien language)
NARRATOR: What’s that Finn?
ALIEN: (Alien language)
NARRATOR: I get it, the job’s only half done. You want to cover the back garden as well.
But how many squares of grass do you need?
ALIEN: (Alien language)
NARRATOR: Let’s see…
When you’ve got a square, or a rectangle shaped space like the back garden, you can work out it’s area by multiplying its length by its breadth.
The back garden is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 squares long. And its 1, 2, 3, 4, squares wide. 5 x 4 makes 20.
Which means you’ll need 20 squares of bogmany bluegrass altogether.
ALIENS: Ah ha!
NARRATOR: Have you got 20 more squares?
Alien: (Alien language)
NARRATOR: Oh well, back to the garden centre.
ALIEN: (Alien language)
NARRATOR: What’s that Finn? Atomic fertiliser? I’d be careful with that.
Ah! I guess that’s the garden covered.
What is area?
Area means how much space a flat shape takes up.
Area is measured in square units:
- Square centimetres (cm²) are good for measuring a small area - like the picture or a model.
- Square metres (m²) are good for measuring bigger areas - like a wall or a playground.
How do you work out the area of a shape?
You can work out the area of a shape by dividing it into squares and then counting all the squares.This can get a bit slow for big shapes.
Is there a quicker way?
For squares and rectangles it can be quicker to measure the length, measure the breadth and then multiply them.So if a rectangle is 2 cm long and 3 cm wide, the area is:
2 cm x 3 cm = 6 cm²
More on Measurement
Find out more by working through a topic
- count5 of 8
- count6 of 8
- count8 of 8
