Learning Age: 7 to 11 Years

Learning Track: Numeracy Part 2

Percentages Made Easy

F or too many children the mere mention of 'percentages' causes feelings of helplessness and frustration.

We hope to save your child from this unpleasant fate. We want your child to be confident with percentages and know how to use them.

Percentages is an area of numeracy which often crops up in day-to-day life.

Poor understanding of percentages can originate from a poor understanding of fractions. To give your child a refresher on fractions click for our Mini-Lesson here.

In the next Mini-Lesson, we explain percentages using something your child will be familiar with... cake... yum!

Mini-Lesson: 'Percentages Made Easy - Percentage Basics with Cake'

Note that the symbol '%' is often used instead of writing out 'percent'.

1. Percentages are often used to describe how much of something we are talking about. For example, in a sale your favourite gizmo could be on sale for 20% less than it's normal price.

2. Percentages are used to describe the "fraction" of something we are talking about.

3. Remember that 'A FRACTION IS PART OF A WHOLE', click here for a reminder about fractions.

4. The word 'percent' actually means 'out of 100'... so a percentage is simply the 'fraction of 100'! So remember whenever you see the '%' sign, it simply means the 'FRACTION OUT OF 100'.

5. Now for an example. Think of a square cake, cut into 100 equal pieces!

6. Your friend could say "What is the percentage of cake can I eat ?", You might reply, "20 percent"

7. If 5 pieces of the cake were eaten, this would be the same as the fraction 5/100 so we would say '5 percent' was gone.

8. Some more examples...

If 20 pieces were eaten, this would be the same as the fraction 20/100, so we would say '20 percent' was gone.

If 50 pieces were eaten, this would be the same as the fraction 50/100, we would say '50 percent' was gone.

Notice that 50% is the same as a half !

9. People talk about percentages a lot, so it is handy to know some that often come up

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Mini-Lesson: 'Percentages Made Easy - Get Active with Percentages'

1. Fill a jug of water

2. Find a advert for a sale with a percentage off

Mini-Lesson: 'Percentages Made Easy - How to Find the Percentage of a Number'

Example A. Find 15% of 350

1. Work out 10%, that's the same as 10/100, which is the same as 1/10 (reducing fraction) remember that's easy... just divide by 10, so that's 35.

2. So we know 10% of 350, but as we need to find 15%, that's 5% we need to work out. Well 5% is half of 10% so 5% would be half of 35 which is 17 1/2

3. So if we add the 10% and 5% we get 15% we were after which is 35 + 17 1/2 = 52 1/2

Example B. Find 1% of 350

Work out 1%, that's the same as 1/100 remember that's easy... just divide by 100, so that's 3.5

Example C. Find 3% of 350

Work out 3%, that's the same as 1/100 remember that's easy... just divide by 100, so that's 3.5 But we need to find 3%... as 3% is 3x more than 1%, the answer is 3 x 3.5 = 10.5

Mini-Lesson: 'Percentages Made Easy - Converting a Percentage to a Decimal'

If you remember a percentage is simply 'A FRACTION OUT OF 100' this is easy enough. To convert 45% to a decimal we know that 45% is same as 45/100. We also know that 45/100 is made up of 4 1/10's and 5 1/100's Next need to uderstand place value, see Mini Lesson XXXX. Mini-Lesson: 'Percentages Made Easy - Converting a Percentage to a Fraction'

If you remember a percentage is simply 'A FRACTION OUT OF 100' this is easy enough. So to convert 45% as a fraction, it is simply 45/100 as a fraction. You could reduce this fraction if you withed, see Mini-Lesson: XXXX.

Mini-Lesson: 'Percentages Made Easy - Converting a Fraction to a Percentage'

Once again if you remember a percentage is simply 'A FRACTION OUT OF 100', then this is easy. To convert 2/5 to a percentage know how to convert this fraction to one 'out of 100' (with 100 as the denominator). See Mini-Lesson: XXXX, on how to do this.

Percentages Made Easy - Summary

Percentages are often used to describe how much of something we are talking about.

The symbol '%' is often used instead of writing out 'percent'

'Percent' actually means 'out of 100'... so a percentage is simply the 'fraction of 100'

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