LESSON 2 The Coat of Many Bits

Making Costumes for the Play

Help wanted! Your creative talents are needed to help make costumes for a play in Ms. Alfonso's class. The students want to cover the front of their costumes with a special, colorful material. They need your help to figure out how much of this material they will need.

Trace the outline of a coat onto a large piece of paper.
Use base-ten pieces to help measure the area in square centimeters. Trace flats, skinnies, and bits onto your picture to show how they can cover your coat. (How many square centimeters does one bit cover?)
Write the number of flats, skinnies, and bits that cover the front of your coat. Record your answer in a class table like this:

Look at the class table from Question 3. Which group recorded the largest area? Be prepared to explain your reasoning.
Find the total number of square centimeters covered by your base-ten pieces. Explain how you found your answer.
How many flats, skinnies, and bits are needed to show your number using the Fewest Pieces Rule? Write your answer in a new class table like the one above. The new table will have a 1000s column and also a column for you to write the total number of square centimeters you measured.