Stained Glass: Area of Composite Figures
Stained Glass: Area of Composite Figures — an interactive 6th grade geometry worksheet (6.G.A.1)
Turn area practice into a real job. In this scenario-based, auto-graded worksheet, students step into Glasswing Studio as the apprentice cutter and take on a stained glass commission. To order the glass, they must find the area of all ten cut segments, add them into one total, and convert square inches to square feet so the studio knows exactly how much glass to buy and what it will cost. The math is not an exercise here, it is the invoice.
Every segment is a different composite figure, so students get genuine, repeated practice with the core skill of Common Core standard 6.G.A.1: breaking an irregular shape into rectangles and triangles, finding each area, and combining the parts.
What students practice:
- Finding the area of rectangles, right triangles, parallelograms, and trapezoids
- Decomposing L-shapes and cut-corner pieces into familiar shapes
- Subtracting notches and cutouts rather than adding them
- Identifying perpendicular height versus slanted sides
- Adding multiple areas into a single total
- Converting square inches to square feet (dividing by 144) and rounding to two decimal places
- Connecting area to a real-world cost estimation
Why teachers love it:
- Interactive and self-paced, with answer fields that turn green when correct and red when wrong, so students self-correct as they work
- Auto-graded with a real-time teacher dashboard showing who started, who finished, and accuracy rates
- A real-world stained glass story that makes area feel purposeful, not procedural
- Built-in cost estimation that ties geometry to a believable purchasing decision
- Clear shape labels that scaffold the decomposition without giving away answers
- Roughly 20 to 30 minutes of focused, meaningful work, with no filler problems
Supports intelligent randomization: Enable randomization and every student receives a different set of dimensions and a different correct answer, while every version covers the same shapes and skills. Each student's work is auto-graded against their own figures, which makes the activity ideal for fair practice, retakes, and reducing answer-sharing.
Standards alignment: Common Core 6.G.A.1 (area of composite figures). Best suited for Grade 6 geometry, and a strong fit for 7th and 8th grade review or intervention.
Keywords: area of composite figures, 6.G.A.1, 6th grade geometry, composite area worksheet, decomposing shapes, area of trapezoids and triangles, real-world math, interactive math worksheet, auto-graded geometry, stained glass math project.
Learning Objective
Students find the area of composite figures by decomposing them into rectangles and triangles, then combining the parts, in the context of a stained glass commission. Working as the apprentice cutter at Glasswing Studio, they compute the area of ten differently shaped glass segments, sum them in square inches, and convert to square feet (dividing by 144) so the studio can order and price the glass. Aligned to 6.G.A.1, the worksheet reinforces that any irregular shape can be broken into familiar shapes whose areas students already know, while tying that skill to a real purchasing decision where precision carries a cost.
Randomization Available
If you enable randomization every student will receive a different set of dimensions, while every version covers the same shapes and skills. Each student's work is auto-graded against their own figures, which makes the activity ideal for fair practice, retakes, and reducing answer-sharing. Do you want to enable randomization?
💡 Tip: When assigning this activity to your classroom, you can optionally enable randomization to give each student a unique version of the problems. When you re-assign the same worksheet, each student will get a new set of questions, helping them master the content through repeated practice.
