Equivalent Fractions, Decimals and Percents: First Walk

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1 Getting Started
2 Watch and Notice
3 Try It Together
4 Build Your Equivalence Table
5 Class Challenge
6 What Did We Notice?
7 What's Next
Pupil practice

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

Illustration for Getting Started Look at these three labels on the board: 1/2, 0.5 and 50%.

Are they the same amount, or three different amounts? What is your first instinct?

Write the three forms up and take three hands-up answers, not open call-outs. Do not settle the question yet — let the disagreement sit. We'll find out today whether these are really the same.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Watch and Notice ~8 mins

The interactive shows a phone battery at different levels. Under each one, watch the three labels: the fraction, the decimal and the percent. One amount, three ways of writing it.

When we meet a fraction, we can also find its decimal by dividing the top number by the bottom number. We will do one together on the board, then check it on the battery.

Teacher Notes

1/2: point at the three labels, take a hands-up answer for what each reads, revoice so the room hears all three named. One half, 0.5, 50%.

Worked example (board): Convert 1/4 to a decimal by dividing. Write 1 ÷ 4. Show short division: 4 into 1.0 is 0.2, bring down 0, 4 into 20 is 5, so 1 ÷ 4 = 0.25. Then percent: 0.25 is 25 hundredths, so 25%. Reveal the battery and match all three labels.

1/4: one quarter, 0.25, 25%. Draw out that 0.25 is 25 hundredths, i.e. 25 out of 100. A quarter is half of a half, so 25 is half of 50.

3/4: three of those quarter-parts, 25 + 25 + 25 = 75%, decimal 0.75. Before revealing the last battery, ask: what percent will one tenth be?

1/10: reveal the answer. Ten tenths fill it, 100 ÷ 10 = 10, so one tenth is 10%, decimal 0.1. Lock it in: turn a fraction into hundredths and the percent is the top number.

Slip to watch: pupils saying the decimal without having divided (guessing from the picture only). Point back to the board sum 1 ÷ 4 = 0.25.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Try It Together ~8 mins

The interactive shows a phone battery at four levels in fifths: 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5. Before each one, predict its percent, then we check it together. Notice the even steps between levels.

Teacher Notes

1/5: one fifth is two tenths, so 0.2 = 20%. Fills a small part of the battery.

2/5: two steps, 20 + 20 = 40%, decimal 0.4.

3/5: one more step, 40 + 20 = 60%, decimal 0.6.

4/5: nearly full, 60 + 20 = 80%, decimal 0.8.

Pause for a prediction before revealing each one.

Draw out the pattern: every fifth adds two tenths and twenty percent, so the steps stay even.

Watch for pupils reading the decimals as tenths but slipping on the percent link (0.2 is twenty hundredths, not two percent).

+10 XP

4 - Build Your Equivalence Table ~3 mins

COPYBOOK MOMENT

In your maths copy, write each of these amounts three ways in a row (fraction, decimal, percent), one set under the other. You will have a short equivalence table to study from.

1/2 = 0.5 = 50%
1/4 = 0.25 = 25%
3/4 = 0.75 = 75%
1/10 = 0.1 = 10%
1/5 = 0.2 = 20%

Underline the percent column so it stands out when you come back to it.

Teacher Notes

Walk the room glancing at column alignment — three neat columns per row. This is whole-class copybook practice, not marking. Catch anyone writing 0.1 as 0.10% or dropping the % sign.

+10 XP

5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

Before we start the matches, we will work one new amount together on the board: 1/100.

Watch how we turn it into a decimal and a percent the same way we have been doing: read it as hundredths, then the top number is the percent. One hundredth means 1 out of 100, so the decimal is 0.01 and the percent is 1%. That is the smallest slice on our table, just a sliver of battery.

Then we match one form to the missing two. We will work through these in order: given 0.5, then 0.25, then 3/4, then 10%, then 0.2, then 1/100. Set the battery so all three forms match. Use the worked example when you reach the last one.

Match the three forms

Teacher Notes

Teach 1/100 first, before any challenge item. Board work, end to end:

1. Write 1/100. Ask: how many hundredths? (already 1 hundredth.)

2. Decimal: 1 hundredth is 0.01 (two decimal places, one in the hundredths place).

3. Percent: top number when the fraction is hundredths, so 1%.

4. Lock the triple: 1/100 = 0.01 = 1%. Point at a bare sliver on the battery if useful.

Then run the practice set briskly. Pupils take turns at the board, class predicts the battery line before each Check, class confirms before moving on.

Order: 0.5 → 0.25 → 3/4 → 10% → 0.2 → 1/100.

Slip to watch on the last one: writing 0.1 or 10% by habit, or 0.10 instead of 0.01. Revoice: one out of a hundred is one percent, the smallest step on our table.

+15 XP

Pupil practice

Module 1 · Place Value and the Decimal Number System Number

Lesson 11 · Equivalent Fractions, Decimals and Percents: First Walk

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Teacher Class Feed

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

2 - Watch and Notice ~8 mins

3 - Try It Together ~8 mins

4 - Build Your Equivalence Table ~3 mins

5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

Match the three forms

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