Module 3 Calculating
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Can I solve multi-step problems involving percentages and/or fractions?

Example review questions

  • A shop has a sale where all items are reduced in price by 30%. A CD player normally costs £45. How much will it cost now? Record your method.
  • Which is greater: 80% of 35 or 3/5 of 60?
  • A bar of chocolate contains 12 squares. Ann eats 1/6 of the bar. Ben eats 3/4 of the bar. What fraction of the bar is left?
  • Charlie has saved £15 towards buying a computer game. This is 3/5 of the cost of the game. How much does the game cost?
  • In a packet of 40 biscuits, 20% are chocolate, 3/8 are plain and the rest are custard creams. How many are custard creams?
  • Sam gets £3.50 pocket money. He spends 2/5 of it. What is left?

Teaching guidance

This teaching guidance document suggests some of the key vocabulary, models, images and practical equipment that children should experience and be able to use. It also includes some teaching tips to provide a few starting points for ways of supporting children with this area of mathematics.

PDF file Teaching guidance: Can I solve multi-step problems involving percentages and/or fractions? | 70KB new window

Consolidation and practice

These resources are to support children in guided or independent work. Roll over the highlighted resource for a description.

PDF file How to use fractions ITP | 144KB new window

SWF file Fractions ITP | 25KB new window

XLS file Fractions of amounts spreadsheet | 29KB new window

PDF file KS3 Securing level 5 in mathematics: Fractions, decimals and percentages | 56KB new window

PDF file Teaching activity | 74KB new window

Visit the nrich website new window for further activities to support practice and application.

Fractions

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The Fractions interactive teaching program (ITP) is an ICT-based tool to support the exploration of part numbers. Fractions ITP allows the child or teacher to represent and compare fractions on fraction strips. The displayed strips can be labelled as a vulgar fraction, a decimal (to three decimal places) or a percentage, and the ratio of yellow to green parts of each strip can also be displayed.

Opportunities to use and apply

Possible contexts include:

  • Word problems, e.g. 200 people attended a concert. 1/5 of the people had complimentary tickets. The rest paid £7.50 each. How much money was collected from selling tickets?
  • Money and measures, e.g. Which is longer: 3/4 of an hour or 2500 seconds?
  • Every day scenarios, e.g. Peter's family have a meal out to celebrate his birthday. The meal costs £52 and the restaurant adds a 15% service charge. How much is the bill altogether?

 

Confirming learning

Ask probing questions such as:

  • Emma gets 16 out of 20 in a test on Monday and 38 out of 50 in a test on Tuesday. On which day did she score a higher percentage? Explain how you know.
  • A bag contains 1 kg of sugar. I use 1/4 of it in baking and pour 2/3 of what is left into a jar. How many g of sugar are left in the bag?
  • A camera normally costs £85 in shop A but is reduced by 20%. In shop B the same camera normally costs £100 but is reduced by 35%. Where should I buy the camera?
  • At a concert there are about 20,000 people. 2/5 of the people are women and 15% are children. How many men are at the concert?