Primary 5 Maths | Percentages (I) Lesson-Prep Guide (for tutors) | 45-minute flow, teaching script, common errors

2026-11-15

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Primary Maths

A percentage is only another way of writing parts per hundred, so it says the same thing as a fraction and a decimal. Once pupils see the three forms as interchangeable, percentage word problems become ordinary fraction work.

Objectives — By the end of the lesson the pupil can: (1) explain that 25 percent means 25 parts out of every 100; (2) convert between percentages, fractions and decimals; (3) find a percentage from two given quantities; (4) explain what a percentage above 100 stands for.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Simplifying fractions	reduces 25 over 100	answers one quarter
Decimal place value	says the tenths digit of 0.6 is 6	does not read it as 6 percent
Whole-number multiplication	works out 120 times 35	gets 4200 and knows a point shift follows

02 Lesson flow (45 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0–6 min	Entry check	sets three items on reducing, place value and multiplying	answers aloud
6–16 min	What a percentage means	colours 25 squares of a hundred-square grid	counts squares and says 25 percent
16–26 min	The three forms	shows 25 percent, 0.25 and one quarter together	writes 60 percent in all three forms
26–34 min	Percentage from two numbers	models 18 out of 24	works 45 out of 60
34–41 min	Independent practice	reads the questions only	works three items alone
41–45 min	Exit check	marks at once	says which step went wrong

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Act 1: A percentage counts parts per hundred

“The percent sign can be read as out of every hundred. So 25 percent means 25 out of every 100. As a fraction that is 25 over 100, which reduces to one quarter, and as a decimal it is 0.25. Three ways of writing, one quantity.”

Write 35 percent as a fraction. What does it reduce to?

Scene 2: Act 2: The commonest misconception — shifting the point the wrong way

“To turn a percentage into a decimal, move the point two places left. To go the other way, move it two places right, because a percentage is already a division by a hundred. So 0.07 is 7 percent, not 0.7 percent and not 70 percent. Ask yourself how many hundredths the decimal holds before you move anything.”

What is 0.6 as a percentage? How many places did you move?

Scene 3: Act 3: What above 100 percent means

“100 percent is the whole quantity. 120 percent is that whole plus another fifth, so 120 percent of 50 is 60, which is more than we started with. An answer larger than the original is not automatically a mistake; check the percentage first.”

If the percentage is 150, will the answer be larger or smaller than the original?

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Percentage to decimal and fraction	25 percent	divide by 100, then reduce the fraction	0.25 and one quarter
Decimal or fraction to percentage	0.6 and 7 over 10	multiply by 100 and add the sign	60 percent and 70 percent
Percentage from two numbers	18 correct out of 24	18 divided by 24 gives 0.75, then times 100	75 percent
A percentage of a quantity	35 percent of 120	120 times 0.35	42

Sanity check (teach this): Two checks: below 100 percent the answer must be smaller than the original quantity, above 100 percent it must be larger; and after converting, reduce the fraction to confirm the decimal, since 0.75 must equal three quarters.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Write three fifths as a percentage.	60 percent	whether the pupil goes through 0.6 before multiplying
Write 0.07 as a percentage.	7 percent	whether the point was shifted one place too many
What is 75 percent of 64?	48	whether the pupil multiplies by 0.75 rather than dividing by it

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Shifting the point the wrong way	writes 0.07 as 70 percent	Decimals to percentages move the point two places right, so 0.07 becomes 7.
Forgetting the times 100	answers 0.75 percent for 18 out of 24	0.75 is the decimal; multiply by 100 to reach a percentage.
Reducing badly	reduces 25 over 100 to one fifth	Divide top and bottom by 25, not by 20.
Deleting a large answer	crosses out 60 for 120 percent of 50	A percentage above 100 gives an answer above the original, so 60 is right.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Primary 5 maths paper 1: number and algebra section — Section B, questions 1 to 5

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
45 correct out of 60. What is the score as a percentage?	75 percent	if wrong, reteach percentage from two numbers
What is 12 percent of 250?	30	if wrong, reteach decimal multiplication
36 is 30 percent of what number?	120	if wrong, repair finding the whole next lesson

09 Tutor FAQ

How much of the Primary 5 syllabus does this topic carry?

It is a main strand of number work, and the Primary 6 topics of discount, profit and simple interest all rest on the three-form conversion taught here.

Pupils keep mixing up percentages and decimals. What helps?

Anchor the idea on a hundred-square grid and ask for the sentence parts out of every hundred before any calculation.

Is there a matching practice paper?

Yes. The homework links to the TutorZone Primary 5 maths paper, which includes answers for immediate checking.

Find a tutor — free Tutor Registration →

A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.

Practice papers　Paper 1 (basics)　·　Paper 2 (intermediate)　·　Paper 3 (challenge)　·　Paper 4 (error clinic)