Explore the relationships among the area formulas for parallelogram and rectangles.

• Students will be able to describe how the area of a parallelogram relates to the area of a rectangle with the same base and height.
• Students will be able to describe how the area of a triangle relates to the area of a parallelogram with the same base and height.
• Students will be able to describe how the area of a trapezoid relates to the area of a parallelogram with the same height and with a base equal to the sum of the bases of the trapezoid.
• Students will be able to use relationships to compute the areas of parallelograms, triangles, and trapezoids given their dimensions.

• rectangle
• parallelogram
• triangle
• trapezoid

Students will:

• Observe the relationships between figures and compare the areas of the figures.
• Formulate expressions to compute the area of parallelograms, triangles, and trapezoids.