Counting squaresL-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 of irregular shapes worksheets
Not every shape can be counted in one clean sweep, and that is exactly where organizing a count becomes a skill. These free printable worksheets cover only irregular L-shapes with unit squares and ask how many there are — the standard proper.
If they get stuck
Area of irregular shapes
The answer key prints on a separate page.
What's on this sheet
The mixed counting sheets start with tidy rectangles; this one skips straight to the irregular figures, because a rectangle can be counted almost without looking and an L cannot. A child has to decide how to count it — by rows, by parts, or by finding the big rectangle and taking the bite away — and that decision is the whole of the practice.
Why this sheet works
No numbers are printed beside the shapes, and that is deliberate. Labeling the sides would quietly turn the question into a multiplication, which is a later standard; here the grid is the question, and area is discovered as an amount of covering rather than a rule to apply.
How this one works
One question from a sheet like this one, worked a step at a time — with a sentence saying what just happened and why.
Area of irregular shapes, step by step