Area of Figures in Square Units (2-9 thru 2-22)

Find the area in square units of figures that the Mathletes created last week with coordinate points.  There are many methods of determining area, but here our strategy was to sketch each rectangle within the figure until all that is left are triangles.  The area of each rectangle can be found by simply counting the squares or by multiplying the outside dimensions (length times width).

The remaining triangles use the same process as finding the area of the rectangle.  Multiply the horizontal dimension by the vertical dimension (length times width), then cut that product in half.

Finally, add all of the areas together to get the total area.  See my solution of the the hand of Taz on the attached pdf as well as the total area of each of the figures handed out in class (Batman, Tigger, Woodstock, and Taz).  There are many ways to approach this problem.