AMILIA’S GARDEN

Amilia had always dreamed of having her own magnificent garden. After years of begging and pleading, her mother finally agreed that she was old enough and wise enough to take care of one on her own. Amilia gathered all of her gardening tools and headed outside to the place where her new garden would be. Have you ever seen a garden before ?

or planted a garden? What shape did the garden have?

She cleared out an area of land that was the shape of a rectangle. So she began to plant the first row of plants in her garden for her rose bushes. Oh, how she loved the sweet smell of roses in the springtime.

Next, she dug a row for the tulips that reminded her of her grandmother’s garden. When she was all finished planting her new garden, it had two rows with nine plants in each row. Each square unit where her plant was located measured one square foot.This is interesting…her garden is the shape of a rectangle.In your journals, draw what two rows of nine plants in each row looks like. You can use circles to represent the flowers.

MANIPULATE THE FLOWERS IN ROWS LIKE AMELIA DID IN HER GARDEN

Amilia figured out that if she multiplied the number of rows by the number of plants in each row, she could find out how large the garden is. She could find the area of her garden. “Two times nine is eighteen. The area of my garden is eighteen square feet.” She said. 2 feet X 9 feet = 18 square feet.

The area of her garden is 18 square feet…Im confused…turn and talk with your partners…where did an area of 18 square units come from?

2

9

X

2

X

9

Her brother, Kieran came out to see Amilia’s masterpiece. “Wow! Great garden!” he exclaimed. “Do you know what would make your garden even better? A row of sunflowers would make your garden spectacular.” She agreed and got to work digging another row in her garden for nine sunflowers.

Sounds like Amelia’s garden is growing…will is still be a rectangle shape or a square? How do you know?

USING ROWS - MAKE AMELIAS NEW GARDEN WITH THE SUNFLOWERS

Now Amilia had three rows of plants with nine plants in each row. Her brother used repeated addition by adding the number of plants in each row to find the new area of the garden. “nine, plus nine, plus nine equals twenty-seven. 9 + 9 + 9 = 27. Your garden now has an area of twenty-seven square feet.” He announced.

Is there another way Amelia can find the area of her garden?

9 +

9 +

9 +

9 +

9 +

9 +

Her father was the next to come out to admire her beautiful garden. “You did a great job with your garden, Amilia.” He said. “Do you know what would make your garden even better? A row of daisies would make your garden perfect.” She agreed and got to work digging another row in her garden for nine daisies. Now Amilia’s garden had four rows with nine plants in each row.

Can you figure out the area of the garden? Can you find the area in two different ways?

USING ROWS – MAKE AMELIAS NEW GARDEN

That’s right! The area of her garden is now 36 square feet.

4 X 9 = 36 sq. feet or

9 + 9 + 9 + 9 = 36 sq. feet

Lastly, her mother came outside to admire all of her hard work. “Amilia, your garden is splendid!” she exclaimed. “Mommy, do you think that I should add anything else to make it even better?” asked Amilia. Her mother smiled and answered, “Absolutely not! It is perfect just the way it is!”

THE END