Area and perimeter

Finding the area of rectangles or, given the area, finding the lengths of the sides.

Logical thinking needed here to work out the perimeters of shapes.

When working out the surface area of a cuboid (box shape) you need to think that there are three pairs of opposite sides and each side of a pair will have the same area.

Sometimes shapes are made up of two or more rectangles. These shapes are known as compound or composite shapes. To find the area of a shape like this you need to divide it into rectangles.

Find the area of triangles using squared paper.

Finding the total area of composite shapes by working out the area of rectangles and triangles within them.

The area of a triangle equals half the base times the height.

How to find the area of a parallelogram. Note: drawings are not to scale.