Why teach percentages

This is a good activity for reinforcing the concept of what percentage is for young students. Use a hundred chart to convert between fractions, decimals, and percentage. How do they know? For example, ask the students to color. Double the grid to understand percentages over Students may struggle to understand percentages over Use 2 charts to explain the concept. Have students practice representing percents on a strip diagram. To create a strip diagram, or percentage bar, simply draw a long rectangle.

Ask students to estimate where certain percentages fall on the bar. You can use this method to introduce the concept of how percent, decimals, and fractions are related.

Method 3. Have students quickly convert decimals to percentages. Students can convert decimals to percentages by moving the decimal point 2 spaces to the right. Demonstrate this by using an arrow to show the decimal point moving over. For example, show the students that. Have students convert a few decimals into percentages and vice versa on their own.

Show students easy-to-remember percentage-to-fraction conversions. Make a poster that shows a few easy conversions so that students can reference it quickly. Tell them to use it to quickly solve problems. This way, students will start to make the association between fractions and percentages. This can also be a good reference for older students. Tell students to think "out of " when they see percentage problems. When students see percentage in a word problem, tell them to immediately write the number as a fraction out of Students are often used to having 3 numbers to work with to find a fourth.

Writing a percentage as a fraction will give them another number to work with. This is a strategy that is helpful for middle school students around ages Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Related wikiHows How to. How to. So far we have looked at the basics of percentages, and how to add or subtract a percentage from a whole.

Sometimes it is useful to be able to work out the percentages of a whole when you are given the numbers concerned. What percentage of each type of staff does it employ? The first step is therefore to add together the different types of staff. We know the number of staff in each category, but we need to convert that to a fraction of the whole, expressed as a decimal. The calculation we need to do is:. When we use words to describe the calculation, it can help it to make more sense. To convert this number to a percentage, we need to multiply it by Multiplying by is the same as dividing by a hundred except you move the numbers the other way on the place values scale.

If they don't, then check your calculations. It can be useful to show percentage data representing a whole on a pie chart. You can quickly see the proportions of categories of staff in the example. This eBook covers proportion looking at numbers as parts of other numbers, as parts of a larger whole, or in relation to other numbers. The book covers fractions and decimals, ratio and percentages with worked examples for you to try and develop your skills.

Whether you want to brush up on your basics, or help your children with their learning, this is the book for you. Search SkillsYouNeed:. We'll never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time. Visualising Percentages The grid below has cells. Mental Maths Hacks As your maths skills develop, you can begin to see other ways of arriving at the same answer. How many percent of this figure is colored? See also Percentage of a number using mental math — free lesson.

How to calculate percentages of numbers — free lesson. Interactive fraction, decimal and percentage tool This tool shows you a fraction visually bar or pie and converts the fraction into a percentage and decimal. You can show or hide the equivalent percentage and decimal.

Basics of percent - a free lesson Learn the basics of the concept of percent in this easy lesson! The basic concepts and ideas of this lesson are also explained in this video: Percent or per cent means one hundredth. Other fractions as percents What part of the pencils are short? You will get a decimal number.

Express that as a percentage. Then your answer is already a percentage. Math Lessons menu. Hint: it has to do with a "recipe" that many math lessons follow.

The do's and don'ts of teaching problem solving in math Advice on how you can teach problem solving in elementary, middle, and high school math.