This week we are perfecting the art of percentages!
Year on year, we notice that children are often confused when we teach them our recommended methods for mathematical questions. It happens when children have already attended, or are still attending, other tuition centres. It also can occur when parents or older siblings take it upon themselves to help out by teaching the methods that they know. Whilst we understand and appreciate the efforts from families to give their children all the help that they can, sometimes it just feels like too many recipes to make the same cake! How are they supposed to remember the right one in full?
One of the most important things when teaching children methods is staying consistent with those methods. When looking at percentages, for example, some children have been taught to calculate them using the cancelling method. The cancelling method is straightforward, it must be said, but it is not our ‘go-to’ here at 11PlusLeap!
We take the approach of teaching children to first work out what 10% is and build the answer from there. It’s a method that is quick and logical so it’s easy to understand.
We’ve attached an exercise for the children to do to help them practice this method for finding percentages.
As an extra treat, we’ve also thrown in a ‘Top 10’ exercise just for fun. It’s not testing or practicing percentages, it’s just to get the students engaged. We find it really useful for provoking active discussions about what the answers might be and we love hearing their reasoning behind their answers!
