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Volume and Surface Area Worksheet - Doghouse Math

A model doghouse's surface area and volume are calculated using tables covering its rectangular and triangular prism sections.
Grades
Grade 6, Middle School
Pages
6
File type
PDF
Answer key
Included

Updated Jan 04, 2025

Subject
Math, Geometry, Measurements, Common Core
Topic
surface area, volume
Resource types
Worksheets & Printables, Worksheets, Word Problems
Answer key
Included

About this resource

What's inside this resource

A model doghouse, drawn as a combined rectangular-and-triangular prism with labeled dimensions, gives students a real-world reason to calculate surface area (to determine how much paint to buy) and volume (to reason about what could fit inside). Students first sketch the shape's four unique faces on a grid, accounting for one edge with a fractional length of one-half inch, then use a table to calculate the area of each face type, multiply by how many of each face the doghouse has, and sum them for a grand total; a second table walks through the volume of the rectangular and triangular prism sections separately. Five closing discussion questions ask students to explain why the base isn't painted, calculate how many paint containers to buy given a coverage rate, and justify which formula they used for each volume calculation. A complete answer key follows with every calculated area, the total volume in cubic inches, and model responses to all five discussion questions.

Product description

From the author

Here's a fun and engaging lesson that helps students apply the geometry skills they are learning in the classroom to a real world mathematical situation: painting a doghouse.

It is designed to address the Common Core State Standards 6.G.A.2 and 6.G.A.4: Finding volume and surface area and drawing nets.

Students will:

Determine how many faces there are on a compound three dimensional shape (including a rectangular prism & a triangular prism).

Sketch the faces/create a net on the grid provided (one face includes a fractional length of ½ inch).

Use a table to help calculate the surface area of all of the faces.

Calculate the volume of this compound shape using a table to organize the information.

Answer the provided discussion questions. These are provided to get students thinking about the concepts of geometry and include the questions:

  • Explain why you didn’t calculate the area of the base of the doghouse.

  • If each container of paint covers 200 inches², how many containers should you buy?

  • Why would it be useful to know the volume of the doghouse?

Students are also asked about the formulae for volume of a rectangular prism and triangular prism.

Grades to Use With: This lesson is designed to target Common Core State Standards for 6th grade geometry. It could also be used for enrichment in 5th grade, review in 7th or 8th grades, or in a high school special education classroom.

What's Included:

6 Page PDF

Title Page

Grid for Drawing Nets

Extra Grid Paper

Tables for Calculating Surface Area and Volume

Discussion Questions

Complete Answer Key

If you enjoy this geometry activity, check out others in my store:

Geometry Project: Park Design: Area, Perimeter, and Volume with Budgeting

Middle School Math Stations or Centers: Triangles, Angles, Area

Middle School Math Stations or Centers: Area, Perimeter, and Volume

Relationship Between Area and Perimeter: Math Inquiry Prompt

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

  • Students calculate the surface area of a compound 3-D shape by finding and summing the area of each unique face.

  • Students calculate the volume of a rectangular prism and a triangular prism that together form one compound shape.

  • Students apply a surface-area calculation to a real-world purchasing decision (how many containers of paint to buy).

  • Students explain, in writing, which formula they used to calculate each volume and why one face of the shape is excluded from the paint calculation.

Teaching tips

  • Have students sketch the four unique faces on the grid before touching the calculation tables, since the hint in the file notes there are exactly four distinct face shapes to find.

  • Walk through the fractional edge length (one-half inch) as a class first, since it appears in the triangular roof section and could trip up students calculating area from the grid.

  • Use the coverage-rate question (200 square inches per paint container) as a checkpoint for whether students can move from a calculated total back to a real-world purchasing decision.

Skills covered

  • Surface area of compound 3-D shapes — students find and sum the area of each unique face of a combined rectangular-and-triangular prism.

  • Volume of rectangular and triangular prisms — students calculate and total the volume of each prism section separately.

  • Real-world measurement application — students convert a calculated surface area into a paint-container purchasing decision using a given coverage rate.

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Curriculum

Standards, concepts & topics

Standards

  • 6.G.A.2 — Find the volume of a right rectangular prism with fractional edge lengths by packing it with unit cubes of the appropriate unit fraction edge lengths, and show that the volume is the same as would be found by multiplying the edge lengths of the prism. Apply the formulas V = l w h and V = b h to find volumes of right rectangular prisms with fractional edge lengths in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
  • 6.G.A.4 — Represent three-dimensional figures using nets made up of rectangles and triangles, and use the nets to find the surface area of these figures. Apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
  • 6.RP.A.3 — Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations. a. Make tables of equivalent ratios relating quantities with whole-number measurements, find missing values in the tables, and plot the pairs of values on the coordinate plane. Use tables to compare ratios. b. Solve unit rate problems including those involving unit pricing and constant speed. For example, if it took 7 hours to mow 4 lawns, then at that rate, how many lawns could be mowed in 35 hours? At what rate were lawns being mowed? c. Find a percent of a quantity as a rate per 100 (e.g., 30% of a quantity means 30/100 times the quantity); solve problems involving finding the whole, given a part and the percent. d. Use ratio reasoning to convert measurement units; manipulate and transform units appropriately when multiplying or dividing quantities.

Core concepts

  • surface area

  • volume

  • rectangular prism

  • triangular prism

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