Areas of 2-Dimensional Shapes

 Guide pupils to use square cut-outs each of side one centimeter (called a square
centimeter) as the unit to determine the area of surfaces.
 Pupils do this by covering the surfaces with the one-square centimeter units and counting
the number of units needed to cover the entire surface. The surfaces considered may be
rectangle, square, triangular, circular and even surfaces of irregular shapes.
 The activities used should include simple fractional parts of the square centimeter.
 Also, pupils can be guided to draw the outlines of objects on centimeter grid papers or
graph sheets and determine approximate areas enclosed by counting the number of square
centimeters.
 Again, pupils draw regular and irregular shapes with straight sides and determine their
areas.
 Pupils should record their areas in square centimeters (cm²).
 Squared paper or graph sheet with millimeter subdivisions should also be used and the
areas expressed in square millimeter (mm²).

Area of a right-angle triangle

Pupils can be led to find the area of a right-angled triangle by using their knowledge of the area
of a rectangle.
 Provide pupils with rectangular cut-out.
 Let them draw one of the diagonal lines.

Let them cut along the diagonal line to obtain two right-angled triangles.
 They place one right-angled triangle on the other and note that they are of the same size.
 Let them say their observation about the areas of the two rights angled triangles They will
say that the areas are the same.
 Ask them what they can say about the size of the rectangle they stared with the size of the
right-angled triangles. They will say that one right-angled triangle is half of the rectangle.
 Let pupils tell their observation about the area of one of the right-angled triangle and that
of the rectangle. They will say the area of the right-angled triangle is half that of the
rectangle.
 Lead pupils to represent the length of the rectangle is L cm and width is W cm, then,
1 1
Area of the right-angle triangle = of area of rectangle i.e. Area = (L x W)cm²
2 2
Arca of Any Triangle
Suppose pupils want to find the area of triangle PQR.
 They make a paper cut-out of given triangle PQR and draw the height RS to the PQ

P S Q

 They cut the paper cut-out along the height RS to obtain two right angled triangle
 They arrange these rights angles triangle on the original triangle PQR to form rectangle.

T R W

w cm

P S Q

l cm

 Now pupils are led to identify rectangle PQWT as consisting of rectangle PSRT and
SRWQ.
 Pupils note that, Area of triangle PSR = the area of rectangle PSRT, and area of
triangle
1
SQR = the area of rectangle SQWR
2
1 1
 Pupils note again that, Area of triangle PQR = the area of rectangle PSRT + the
2 2
area of rectangle SQWR
1
 Hence area of triangle PQR = the area of rectangle PQWT.
2
 The area of rectangle PQWT = 1 x wcm²
1
 Therefore, area of triangle PQR = (1 x w)cm²
2
 The length PQ of rectangle PQWT is also the base of the triangle PQR and it is lcm
long.
  Also. The width QW or PT of the rectangle is of the same measure, w cm as the
height SR of the triangle PQR.
1
 The pupils can state, therefore that the area of triangle PQR = base × height
2

Area of a Rectangle
Pupils are guided through the above activities to discover for themselves the rules for finding
the areas of shapes like the rectangle, square and triangle.

4cm

5cm

 Pupils consider an example of a rectangle of length 5cm width 4cm.

 The pupils first fit one square centimeter units into the rectangle and determine by
counting the number of units that fit the entire region.
 Pupils will now notice that there are 20 square centimeters (20cm²).
1 1
 Pupils can also consider another rectangle of length 5 cm and width 2 .
2 2
 Pupils are asked to cover the entire region with 1 square centimeter unit. They notice
that in covering the entire region with 1 square centimeter units some lic partly
outside the rectangle.
 In this case we direct the pupils to divide the units and use fractional part of it.

1
2 cm
2

1
5 cm
2

 Thus, the pupils find out that they need 10 units (1 square centimeter each), 7 half- units
(square centimeter each) and 1 quarter unit ( square centimeter to cover the entire
 1 1 1 1 3
rectangular region). The areas = (10 × 1) + (7 x )+(1 x ) = (10 + 3 + ) cm² = 13
2 4 2 4 4
cm2
 After a number of centimeters pupils will now examine the above process for all the
rectangles they considered, thus pupils will discover for themselves that, the area of a
rectangle in the product of the measures of the length and the width.
 Generally, a rectangle of length L cm and width 10cm, the area is given as A = (L x W)
cm2. Pupils should note that both measurements are given in the same units and the area
is expressed in square units.

Area of a Parallelogram
 Revise pupils' knowledge on finding the area of a rectangle.
 Guide pupils to draw a parallelogram on paper as shown
A B

D E C
base

 Guide pupils to cut-along the broken lines AE and fix it along the side BC

base
 Guide pupils to understand that the figure so formed is a rectangle
 Assist them to realize that length of the rectangle corresponds with the base of the
parallelogram while the breadth of the rectangle corresponds with the height of the
parallelogram.
 Pupils find the area of the rectangle to be equal to the area of parallelogram as
L x B = base x height
Area of Trapezium
1
 How would you help JHS pupils to realize that the area of a trapezium is given as h(a +
2
b)?
 Give pupils a cut-out shapes of a trapeziums.
 Let pupils trace their trapezium on a sheet of paper.

A B

C E D
Guide pupils to divide the trapezium as shown above.
Assist pupils to find the area of rectangle ABCD as ED × BD
1
Let pupils find the area of triangle BCD as (DC × BD)
2
1
Guide pupils to add the two areas as (ED x BD) + (DC × BD)
2
1
Lead pupils to open the brackets and factorize BD out to get BD (ED + DC).
2
Let pupils note that DC = EC - ED
1 1
Pupils replace DC to get BD (ED + EC - ED)
2 2
1 1
Let pupils simplify to get BD ( EC + ED)
2 2
1 1
Pupils realized that if you factor out, the area of trapezium becomes Area = h (a + b), where
2 2
EC = a, ED = b and BD = h

Area of A Circle
Pupils cut a circular disc of a heavy paper, cut the circular disc into a number of equal sectors
and re-arrange the cut sectors to form a rectangle as shown below.

1 2 1 2 3 4
8 3
7
 4
6 5 7 8
5 6

8 5 6 7 8
r
1 2 3 4

πr

 The length of the rectangle is half the circumference of the circle. If r cm is the radius of
the circle, then the length of the rectangle is πr
 It can be deduced that Area = (πr x r) cm² = πr² cm².
 Pupils R.P.K. is that they have established the fact that the circumference of a circle is
πd or 2πr and the concept of π.