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.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Area can be measured in square metres.
  2. You write square metres as m²
  3. 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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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
Correct answer: The width of a door
Q2.
Match the item with the square unit that would be the most useful for finding its area.
Correct Answer:square cm,a page in a book

a page in a book

Correct Answer:square m,a back garden

a back garden

Correct Answer:square mm,a blade of grass

a blade of grass

Correct Answer:square km,a village

a village

Q3.
Which of these is another way of writing 'square metres'?
2m
m2
Correct answer:
Q4.
Which of these sets of fractions total one whole?
Correct answer: one half + one half
one quarter + one quarter
Correct answer: one third + one third + one third
Correct answer: one quarter + one quarter + one quarter + one quarter
Q5.
What is the area of this shape? cm²
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 15, 15 cm², 15 square centimetres, fifteen
Q6.
What is the area of this shape? cm²
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 18, 18 cm², 18 square centimetres, eighteen

6 Questions

Q1.
Which of these surfaces would you measure using square metres?
The area of a town
Correct answer: The area of the classroom floor
The area of a reading book
Correct answer: The area of the school playground
Correct answer: The area of a PE mat
Q2.
How many different ways can this value be expressed?
An image in a quiz
Correct answer: Four square metres
Four squares
Correct answer: Four metres squared
Correct answer: 4m²
4 squared
Q3.
Which value shows the best estimate of the whole area?
An image in a quiz
12 m²
Correct answer: 13 m²
14 m²
Q4.
True or false? This shape has an area of two square metres.
An image in a quiz
True. There are 2 squares that each have the area of one square metre.
Correct answer: False. The shapes meet at the vertices so they are two shapes.
Q5.
Match the shape to the total area.
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer:a,3 m²

3 m²

Correct Answer:b,4 m²

4 m²

Correct Answer:c,2 m²

2 m²

Correct Answer:d,5 m²

5 m²

Q6.
Which of the shapes have an area of 5 square metres?
An image in a quiz
a
Correct answer: b
c
Correct answer: d