Counting squaresBoth shapes
Name: Date:
Count the squares to find the area of each figure.
1 squares
2 squares
3 squares
4 squares
5 squares
6 squares
7 squares
8 squares
Area by counting squares worksheets
The first area a child meets is not a formula — it is counting. These free printable worksheets show a figure covered in unit squares and ask how many there are, which is exactly how the standards introduce area.
If they get stuck
Area by counting squares
The answer key prints on a separate page.
What's on this sheet
No numbers are printed beside the shapes, and that is deliberate. Labeling the sides would quietly turn the question into a multiplication, which is the next standard and a year later. Here the grid is the question: a child puts a finger on each square, counts, and discovers that area is an amount of covering rather than a rule to remember.
Why this sheet works
The irregular figures are the ones that matter most. An L-shape cannot be counted in one clean sweep, so a child has to organize the count themselves — by rows, by parts, or by finding the big rectangle and taking the bite away. Children who have only ever counted rectangles will often try to multiply the bounding box, which is the error this practice exists to surface.
How this one works
Area of an L-shape by counting
an L, not a rectangle
whole:7 × 3 =21
bite:6 × 1 =6
21 − 6 =15
first way:21 − 6 =15
strip:7 × 2 =14
upright:1 × 1 =1
14 + 1 =15 squares
- There is no single row that runs all the way across this one, so counting rows does not work as it stands. Cut it into pieces that ARE rectangles — and there is more than one way.
- First way: count the whole rectangle it would be — 7 × 3 = 21 — then take off the bite, 6 × 1 = 6. That leaves 15.
- Second way: two rectangles. The strip underneath is 7 × 2 = 14, the part standing on it is 1 × 1 = 1, and 14 + 1 = 15. Two ways agreeing is how you know a count is right.