Percent, Decimal and Fraction Notation

Activity: Match the numbers to the chart

  1. Copy the charts on the next few pages. The charts are arranged in order of difficulty. (The last chart is blank for you to fill in as needed.)
  2. Cut the numbers in strips from the bottom of each page; keep the strips with each chart. You will need a strip for each student in your class.
  3. Choose the number of charts and accompanying strips so that everyone in the class will get one strip. Choose the appropriate level of difficulty.
  4. Range the charts along the ledge of the blackboard, or on a bulletin board. Shuffle the strips, place them face down and ask each student to pick one strip.
  5. Each student should take his strip to the chart that it matches; when the three students meet at the chart, they should confirm with each other that their strips show equivalent amounts, and prepare to explain their reasoning to the class.
  6. Ask each group of students to explain their thinking to the class.

Variation: Hand out only two of the strips from each chart, for example, the decimal and the fraction notation. When the two students meet at the chart, they should confirm that their strips show equivalent amounts, and then generate the missing notation, in this example, the per cent notation.

Working with a single student: Use three of the charts at an appropriate level of difficulty; shuffle the strips that go with the charts, and ask the student to match them and explain their thinking.

Again, you could use only two of the strips from each chart and ask the student to generate the third notation.