Quick Percentages

A Maths Starter Of The Day

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Topics: Starter | Percentages

  • Maggie Harrity, Torquay Devon
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  • Use for KS2 as M/O starter. My year 5 children love it!
  • Julie Reakes, The English College, Dubai
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  • It's great to have a starter that's timed and focuses the attention of everyone fully. I told them in advance I would do 10 then record their percentages.
  • Mr Bobingson, Sheeepsinvile Primary School
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  • I think this was a jolly good quiz.
  • Rachel, Carnoustie High School
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  • This was very good because we have just done percentages and we neded more practice.
  • Dawn Roscoe, Auckland
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  • Your other quick calculation exercises have the answers appear after the allotted time which works really well. Any chance of that for this exercise?

    [Transum: Thanks for your comments Dawn. A really practical suggestion. As you can see above, an option to show answers has been added.]

How did you use this starter? Can you suggest how teachers could present or develop this resource? Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world.
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Previous Day | This starter is for 26 March | Next Day

 

% - This is the percent symbol.
Percent means 'out of 100'.

Find 50%:

As 50 is half of 100, then 50% means half. To find 50% of a quantity you need to halve (or divide by two). So 50% of 6 is 3.

Find 10%:

As 10 is one tenth of 100, then 10% means 'one tenth of'. To find 10% of a quantity you need to divide it by ten. So 10% of 800 is 80.

Find 25%:

As 25 is one quarter of 100, then 25% means 'one quarter of'. To find 25% of a quantity you need to divide it by four. So 25% of 20 is 5.

Another way of finding 25% of a quantity is first finding 50% then dividing the result by 2.

Find 33⅓%:

As 33⅓ is one third of 100, then 33⅓% means 'one third of'. To find 33⅓% of a quantity you need to divide it by three. So 33⅓% of 30 is 10.

Find 1%:

As 1 is one hundredth of 100, then 1% means 'one hundredth of'. To find 1% of a quantity you need to divide it by 100. So 1% of 800 is 8.

Find other percentages:

Other percentages can be found by combining some of the techniques mentioned above. Here are some examples:

If you need to use a calculator to check your working. See Calculator Workout skill 3.

Commute

Did you know that if you are struggling to mentally work out 24% of 50 you can switch the numbers round and work out 50% of 24 instead. Finding 50% is very easy isn’t it? You will get the same answer.

Finding a percentage of a quantity is an example of a commutative calculation. Not all operations are commutative. Subtraction certainly isn’t as 10 minus one is not the same as one minus ten.

You can use this trick to improve your ability to do this type of calculation quickly if you find the switch makes it easier.

Practise with 12% of 50, 4% of 25 and 75% of 10.

Zero percent fat free

So if this yoghurt is 0% fat free does that mean it is full of fat?
Does the '0%' and the 'free' cancel each other?

Other Percentage Starters



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Laptops In Lessons

Teacher, do your students have access to computers such as tablets, iPads or Laptops?  This page was really designed for projection on a whiteboard but if you really want the students to have access to it here is a concise URL for a version of this page without the comments:

Transum.org/go/?Start=March26

However it would be better to assign one of the student interactive activities below.

Laptops In Lessons

Here is the URL which will take them to a related student activity.

Transum.org/go/?to=ExpressPercent

Student Activity

 


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