Percent as Out of One Hundred

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1 Getting Started
2 Watch and Notice
3 Try It Together
4 Sketch the Grid in Your Copy
5 Class Challenge
6 What Did We Notice?
7 What's Next
Pupil practice

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

Look at this grid: it has ten rows of ten squares, and half of them are shaded blue. What fraction is shaded? What decimal is that? And what percentage? Hands up when you have all three.

Teacher Notes

Give five seconds of quiet think-time before any hands go up, then take three hands-up answers. Do not settle it yet — the words fraction, decimal, percentage for one amount is exactly what the lesson builds. Just log the three answers on the board.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

Three hundred-square grids are shown below. Notice how many squares are shaded in each one, and how the same amount can be written as a percentage, a decimal and a fraction.

Teacher Notes

Same order every time: percentage, then decimal, then fraction. The shaded squares out of a hundred IS the percentage.

1 out of 100: stress the whole grid is one, not one hundred, so one square is one hundredth. Say 1%, 0.01, 1/100 aloud together.

25 out of 100: count the two full rows as twenty, plus five more makes twenty-five. That is 25%, 0.25, 25/100.

50 out of 100: half the grid, five full rows. 50%, 0.5, 50/100. Link back to the Getting Started grid.

Keep all fractions over 100; no 1/4 or 1/2 yet, simplifying comes later.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Try It Together ~10 mins

Key point

One pupil comes to the board and shades each amount on the grid while the rest of us watch and read the three names aloud. Together we shade and name 30%, then 7%, then 75%, and finally 100%. Before each one, everyone predicts out loud how many squares will light up and how many whole rows that makes.

Shade the percentage

Teacher Notes

This round is for talking it through together — one pupil shades at the board while the class predicts and reads the three names aloud. The rest of the class watches the board; nobody needs a device.

Call a pupil up to shade each amount, then ask the class to read all three names off the live read-out.

30% — three whole rows; a clean start. Decimal 0.3, fraction 30/100.
7% — the wrinkle: seven squares, not even one whole row. Ask why 7% looks so much smaller than 30%. Decimal 0.07, fraction 7/100.
75% — model the half-row carefully: fill seven whole rows first, then five squares of the eighth row. Point out that seven and a half rows is 75 squares. Decimal 0.75, fraction 75/100. This is the amount pupils will copy next, so shade it slowly.
100% — the key one: every square shaded is the whole grid, which is 1 whole, or 1.0. Draw out that 100% means 'all of it'.

+15 XP

4 - Sketch the Grid in Your Copy ~3 mins

COPYBOOK MOMENT

Illustration for Sketch the Grid in Your Copy In your maths copy, sketch one 10 by 10 grid and shade 75% of it: fill seven whole rows, then five squares of the next row. Under the grid, write the amount three ways: the percentage, the decimal, and the fraction over one hundred.

Teacher Notes

Walk the room glancing for seven whole rows plus five squares on the eighth row — the exact shading we modelled at the board — and for the three names written underneath (75%, 0.75, 75/100). No marking; this is whole-class copybook practice, not assessment. If time is short, set the same task for 30% and 7% as homework rather than in class.

+10 XP

5 - Class Challenge ~9 mins

Key point

Everyone works at the same time: shade 30% on your first grid, then 7% on your second, then 75% on your third. For each one, write the percentage, the decimal, and the fraction over one hundred underneath.

Tip

For 75%, fill seven whole rows first, then five squares of the next row.

You each have a paper hundred-square on your desk now. Finished early? Shade your favourite percentage on a fourth grid and write it three ways.

Hands-on Task

Teacher Notes

This is a simultaneous whole-class desk task — every pupil shades their own paper grids at the same time while you circulate. It is not turn-taking. After each amount, pause the room and ask the class to say all three names in unison before they move to the next grid. Keep the pace brisk rather than over-explaining.

30% — three whole rows, decimal 0.3, fraction 30/100.
7% — seven squares (not even one whole row), decimal 0.07, fraction 7/100.
75% — seven whole rows then five squares of the eighth row, decimal 0.75, fraction 75/100.
Favourite percent — the harder finish; the strongest pupils can pick a two-digit amount like 12%.

Pupils who finish early shade their favourite percentage; there is no idle waiting.

+15 XP

Pupil practice

Module 1 · Place Value and the Decimal Number System Number

Lesson 10 · Percent as Out of One Hundred

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This lesson is copyright of Coding Ireland 2017 - 2025. Unauthorised use, copying or distribution is not allowed.

Teacher Class Feed

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

3 - Try It Together ~10 mins

Shade the percentage

4 - Sketch the Grid in Your Copy ~3 mins

5 - Class Challenge ~9 mins

Hands-on Task

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XP