Area of a Parallelogram

This Instructional Activity is a part of the Lesson 4, Unit 1, Grade 6. In this activity, students explore different methods of decomposing a parallelogram and rearranging the pieces to find its area. Presenting the parallelograms on a grid makes it easier for students to see that the area does not change as they decompose and rearrange the pieces. This investigation lays a foundation for upcoming work with area of triangles and other polygons. Here are the two key approaches for finding the area of parallelograms: Decompose the parallelogram, rearrange the parts into a rectangle, and multiply the side lengths of the rectangle to find the area.