The Wide World of Portions

Since the beginning of winter term, students have been investigating and digging into the wide world of portions - or part of the number. Fractions. Decimals. Percentages. These are all different ways to express portions of a value. Understanding the relationship between these three notations is critical to each student's growth as a mathematician. 

Most recently, students have spent time working in percent notation. What does it mean to have a percentage of a value and how does it connect to finding the fraction of a value? Is it the same thing? What does 1% represent and how can I use the powers of 10 to move the decimal point? How is the place value of a decimal number connected to percentage? Or to fractions?

Ultimately, students will head into seventh grade fluently moving between the three notations, performing the four major operations in fraction and decimal notation, and consistently finding the percentage of a given value. 

As students round out the year, they look closely at ratios/rates, notice the connection to their previous work and see how this information can show up on the (x,y) coordinate plane.