Area Worksheets: Triangles, Parallelograms

Year 6 maths worksheets on area of rectangles, triangles and parallelograms: 36 questions in three levels (All, Most, Some) with answers. Free PDF.

7-page A4 PDF from the Tiger Shark Education question bank. All: Find area by counting squares. Most: Find the area of rectangles and compound shapes. Some: Find the area of parallelograms and triangles. Each level is two pages of six questions, each with its own diagram and space for working, and the last page has every answer, with short working for multi-step questions. Each level is also available as its own 3-page PDF. Example questions from the Some level: Work out the area of this shape. (parallelogram, base 5 cm, height 8 cm) / Work out the area of this shape. (triangle, base 5 cm, height 12 cm).

What is area? Area is the amount of surface a 2-D shape covers, measured in square units such as cm². Year 6 pupils use formulae for the area of rectangles (length × width), triangles (½ × base × height) and parallelograms (base × perpendicular height), and calculate the area of compound shapes.

Common mistakes and tips: Children often use the slanted side instead of the perpendicular height for triangles and parallelograms, or forget to halve for triangles. Showing how a parallelogram rearranges into a rectangle and how a triangle is half a parallelogram helps the formulae make sense. Writing units as cm² is also important.

Questions on this topic appear year after year in the KS2 maths SATs. Because each sheet starts with the core skill and builds to test-style problems, it works both for teaching the topic and for spotting gaps during revision.

Teaching ideas: use the All level to check prerequisite knowledge at the start of a lesson, then move children onto Most or Some when they are ready. Squared working space encourages neat written methods. The answer page includes short working for multi-step questions, so pupils can self-mark and see where they went wrong.

Spotting misconceptions: the mistakes children make on this topic are usually consistent, so look for patterns across their answers rather than marking each question in isolation. A short follow-up on the specific misconception, using concrete resources or diagrams, is often more effective than setting more of the same questions.

Use All for children working towards the expected standard, Most for secure Year 5 skills and Some for SATs-standard practice: three entry points to the same lesson. Suits whole-class differentiation, intervention groups, homework and SATs revision, and upper KS2 generally.

Part of a set of 42 Year 6 maths topics.