3rd Grade Draw Shapes with a Given Area Worksheet: Six Grids

Most area pages give a shape and ask for its area. This 3rd grade draw shapes with a given area worksheet works the other way round. Each of the six boxes holds an empty grid and a number: 8, 19, 12, 32, 24 or 48. Your child draws any figure that covers exactly that many square units. So there is no single right answer, and that is the point. Page two is the answer key. However, it only shows one example per box, and a note at the bottom says that other shapes are fine too. As a result, your child gets to plan, draw and check, which is a big step past counting.

The six sample shapes, counted again

We counted every square in the six sample figures. They are all right. The 8 and the 19 are bent shapes made of rows. The 12 is a rectangle of 4 by 3, while the 24 is 4 by 6 and the 48 is 8 by 6. The 32 is a long step shape, but its squares still add up to 32.

So when you check your child's page, do not compare it with the key. Instead, count their squares. If the count matches the given area, the answer is right, even if the shape looks nothing like ours.

At the table: plan first, then draw

Ask your child to think before drawing. For 12, 24 or 48, a rectangle works well, because rows of equal length are easy to count. For example, 24 can be 4 rows of 6 or 3 rows of 8.

The 19 is the tricky one. The only rectangle with 19 squares is one long row, so your child will probably build a bent shape, such as 3 rows of 5 plus 4 more. After each figure, they count the squares again and write the total inside. Drawing a figure of a given area by counting unit squares is part of the grade 3 measurement standard, so this page is right on level.

After the page: one area, many shapes

Pick a number, for instance 16. Then you and your child each draw a figure with 16 squares on squared paper, without looking. Next, compare the two shapes and count each other's squares. Finally, try to find the shape with the shortest outline and the one with the longest. That shows that the same area can have a very different perimeter.