Find a box with six rectangular sides. Ask a retail store owner if you can have a box that is no longer needed, or look around your garage.
Measure the dimensions of each side of the box. Label each side of the six-sided box with a unique number between one and six. Measure the width and length of each side of the box. Write down the side number of each box and next to each side number write down its measured width and length.
Make a surface area calculation table. Construct the table so it has four columns, one row at the top to label each of the columns and one row for each side of the box. Realize that you will need seven rows for a six-sided box. Now label each of the columns in the first row of the table. Label the first column Side Number; the second column, Width: the third column, Length; and the fourth column, Area. In the Side Number column, enter 1 in the second row for the first side, 2 in the third row for the third side and so forth until you reach the last row. The entry in the seventh row should be 6 for the sixth side of the box.
Write down the corresponding width and length measurements for each side in the corresponding rows in the surface area calculation table. Write the width of the second side in the width column of the Side Number 1 row. Write the length of the second side in the length column of the Side Number 1 row. Continue in this fashion until all width and length measurements have been entered.
Calculate the surface area for each side. Multiply the entry in the width column and the entry in the length column together for each row in the table. Enter the result in the area column of that row.
Calculate the surface area for the entire shape. Total all the numbers in the area column. This is the total surface area of the six-sided box.