Fun Way to Teach Percents for Sixth Grade Students

Everywhere you look, you will find practical applications of percent math in everyday life. A typical sixth grader has acquired enough basic calculation skills to dive into discounts, sales tax, tips and interest in learning to calculate percentages. Far from being stuck with a dry worksheet full of percent calculations, a creative teacher can set the activity into a meaningful context to turn it into a game that entertains while it educates.

Things You'll Need

  • Poster board
  • Pencils
  • Permanent markers
  • 3-by-5 cards
  • Dice
  • Small objects (for game pieces)
  • 10-by-10 large square grids
  • Crayons, colored pencils, markers or construction paper squares (same size as grid squares)
  • Glue
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Instructions

    • 1

      Draw a game board on a large poster board. Create consequence squares at random points around the board, such as "Lose money on bad investment. Go back 2 squares." Or, "Your favorite store has a giant sale. Go forward 3 squares." Add graphics as desired.

    • 2

      Create a set of shopping percent problem cards such as "Roll a pair of dice once for dollars and again for cents to find the price of your meal at Jeni's Café. Service was excellent today. Add a 20% tip to your bill." Or, "You open a new account at the bank at 15% annual interest. Roll the dice to find out how much your initial deposit was and calculate how much interest you will earn from that in the first year." Or, "Claire's Clothes Rack has a 60% off sale today. Roll the dice to determine how much your selections cost before the discount. Then calculate the discout and the final cost."

    • 3

      Roll the dice and move the indicated number of squares. If it is a consequence square, follow the instructions. Otherwise, draw a card and complete the calculation. Have the other players check your math. If you have the correct answer you win the square. If not, move back one and pass play to the next player. The first person to reach the end space, wins the game.

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