Draw a Net and Find the Surface Area

Start with Match Nets to Three-Dimensional Figures and the grid paper page so students see every face. Paper nets that students cut out and fold help on the pyramid and triangular prism pages.

Draw nets of a rectangular prism, a triangular prism and a square pyramid on grids, then find surface area. A net shows every face of a solid laid flat. The dashed slant height of a pyramid is the height of each triangle face. The directions on the page read: Draw a net of each solid on its grid. Each grid square is 1 unit by 1 unit. Then use your net to find the surface area. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 6th Grade geometry, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with surface area with nets. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

Surface area is the total area of all the faces of a solid, measured in square units. Unfolding the solid into a net shows every face, so the surface area is the area of the whole net.

Opposite faces match, so find the area of each of the three pairs and add. A 6 cm by 3 cm by 4 cm prism has pairs of 24, 48 and 36 square cm, for 108 square cm.

Add the area of the square base to the area of the 4 triangles, using the slant height as each triangle's height. A pyramid with a 6 cm base and a 5 cm slant height has 36 + 60 = 96 square cm.

Yes. All 8 surface area with nets sheets have an answer key that shows the face areas and the total.