3.MD.7 — Area of Rectangles & Distributive Property
Practice finding the area of rectangles using multiplication and the distributive property to solve real-world problems involving square units and tiled surfaces.
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Three different problem sets — same skill, same layout, fresh numbers.
Preview — Set A
Read each problem carefully, then find the area by multiplying length times width or using the distributive property.
- 1.Mia is tiling her bathroom floor. The floor is 4 feet long and 3 feet wide. What is the area of the bathroom floor?
- 2.A school garden is shaped like a rectangle. It is 7 meters long and 5 meters wide. What is the area of the garden?
- 3.Jake is painting a rectangular wall that is 9 feet long and 6 feet wide. What is the total area he needs to paint?
- 4.A rectangular rug in the classroom is 8 feet long and 4 feet wide. What is the area of the rug?
- 5.A rectangular piece of construction paper is 11 inches long and 8 inches wide. What is the area of the paper?
- 6.The school cafeteria has a rectangular floor that is 12 meters long and 9 meters wide. What is the area of the cafeteria floor?
- 7.A vegetable garden is divided into two sections. One section is 3 feet wide and 5 feet long, and the other section is 3 feet wide and 4 feet long. Using the distributive property, what is the total area of the garden? (Hint: 3 × (5 + 4))
- 8.Lucas wants to find the area of a rectangle that is 6 inches long and 7 inches wide. What is the area?
- 9.A swimming pool at the park is 10 meters long and 6 meters wide. What is the area of the pool?
- 10.A rectangular poster on the wall is 5 feet long and 2 feet wide. What is the area of the poster?
- 11.A playground is shaped like a rectangle. It is 11 yards long and 7 yards wide. What is the area of the playground?
- 12.Sofia is decorating a rectangular card. The card is 9 inches long and 4 inches wide. What is the area of the card?
- 13.A rectangular tabletop is 8 feet long. You can split the width into two parts: 3 feet and 2 feet. Using the distributive property, what is the total area of the tabletop? (Hint: 8 × (3 + 2))
- 14.A rectangular field is 12 yards long and 5 yards wide. What is the area of the field?
- 15.The art room has a rectangular floor that is 10 feet long and 8 feet wide. What is the area of the art room floor?
- 16.A rectangular piece of fabric is 6 inches wide. It can be split into two lengths: 7 inches and 3 inches. Using the distributive property, find the total area of the fabric. (Hint: 6 × (7 + 3))
- 17.Noah is laying square tiles on a rectangular patio. The patio is 9 feet long and 3 feet wide. How many square feet of tile does he need?
- 18.A rectangular bulletin board is 11 inches long and 6 inches wide. What is the area of the bulletin board?
- 19.A rectangular sandbox is 4 meters wide. The length can be broken into two parts: 5 meters and 2 meters. Using the distributive property, find the total area of the sandbox. (Hint: 4 × (5 + 2))
- 20.Emma has a rectangular quilt that is 7 feet long and 9 feet wide. What is the area of the quilt?
- 21.A rectangular skating rink is 12 meters long and 8 meters wide. What is the area of the skating rink?
- 22.A rectangular window is 5 feet wide. Its height can be split into two parts: 4 feet and 2 feet. Using the distributive property, what is the total area of the window? (Hint: 5 × (4 + 2))
What this worksheet covers
This is a 22-problem word problems for grade 3 measurement, printed in black and white with the key on page two. Each problem arrives as a few sentences of context rather than a bare expression and answers carry units, and a number without its unit is only half an answer. Problems 8 and 15, for instance, are "Lucas wants to find the area of a rectangle that is 6…" and "The art room has a rectangular floor that is 10 feet long…". Common Core 3.MD.7 is the slot this page fills.
Skills practised
Grade 3 measurement means perimeter and area of rectangles, elapsed time in minutes, and grams and milliliters. Specifically, the problems practise area of Rectangles & Distributive Property. Working the page asks a student to read a situation and choose an operation before computing. 21 different answers appear across the 22 problems, so a student cannot copy one result down the page.
About the word problems format
The 22 story problems each get a full line and an answer rule; problem 8, "Lucas wants to find the area of a rectangle that is 6…" is one, and the answer key writes the unit with every answer. Gardens, ribbons, tanks and trips are the reason measurement is taught; the numbers finally mean something.
Set A, Set B and Set C
Set A is the sheet as it was first published on MathSheetLab, and Sets B and C were derived from it problem by problem: each number became a slot redrawn with the same shape, and every answer was recomputed exactly. Where Set A's problem 12 is "Sofia is decorating a rectangular card. The card is 9…", Set B's is "Xavier is measuring a rectangular card. It is 4 inches long…".
22 story problem(s) drawn from the 3.MD.7 context family (rectangle area stories (l × w, distributive property)) — parameters inferred from the standard and grade
How to use this worksheet
By grade 3 a student should take all 22 measurement problems in one sitting. If the page takes more than about fifteen minutes, the underlying facts are probably not automatic yet, and that is worth fixing before more measurement practice piles on. Ask the student to re-work one missed measurement problem from scratch on Set B rather than correcting it in place; the second attempt shows whether the method changed.
One mistake to watch for
A conversion multiplies when it should divide: 36 inches becomes 432 feet. On this grade 3 word problems, problem 15 ("The art room has a rectangular floor that is 10 feet long…") is the kind of item where it shows.
The direction of the conversion is not being reasoned about.
Ask "should the answer be a bigger number or a smaller one?" before touching the factor; feet are bigger units so there are fewer of them.
Other grade 3 measurement formats
The same skill in the other formats available at this grade.
- Drill — Grade 3 Measurement Drill, 30 problems
- Timed Drill — Grade 3 Measurement Timed Drill, 72 problems
- Missing Number — Grade 3 Measurement Missing Number, 24 problems
- Mixed Review — Grade 3 Measurement Mixed Review, 30 problems
A step either side
The same format one grade down and one grade up — the easier sheet is often the faster fix when this one is not landing.
- 2.MD.5 — Adding and Subtracting Lengths Word Problems — grade 2, 22 problems
- 4.MD.1 — Measurement Conversions Word Problems — grade 4, 22 problems
Word Problems sheets in other grade 3 topics
Print as many copies of this grade 3 measurement word problems as you need; Sets A, B and C and their keys are six separate PDFs, all free.