Middle School Geometry--Grade 6--Lesson 2: Volume of Rectangular Prisms

This standards-aligned lesson introduces students to the concept of volume through the lens of rectangular prisms. Designed for Grade 6 learners, the lesson builds on students’ understanding of area and extends it into three dimensions using the volume formulas \( V = l \times w \times h \) and \( V = B \times h \). Students engage with real-world problems, including a featured exploration of the 432 Park Avenue building in New York City, modeled as a rectangular prism. Through guided instruction, they learn to calculate volume using both whole numbers and fractional edge lengths, reinforcing fluency with multiplication, decimals, and spatial reasoning.

This lesson includes a series of warm-up activities that connect geometry to tangible models, hands-on tasks such as working with nets, and scaffolded examples that explain the logic behind each calculation. Worked-out examples and real-world visuals (like open shipping boxes and fish tanks) help bridge the abstract and concrete. The lesson also incorporates multimedia resources to reinforce vocabulary, geometric concepts, and 3D modeling skills. A built-in quiz with answer key provides assessment, while a Google Earth Voyager story supports additional exploration of real-world geometric structures.

Subscribers to Media4Math can download the complete lesson plan in PDF format. This includes links to animations, vocabulary support, worked-out examples, a student quiz, and answer key.