Hello-

My daughter fully understands percentages up through what has been presented in Level E, Lesson 23. Lesson 24 applies percentages to common problems, and in reviewing these problems, it seems to me that there is a somewhat abrupt transition from figuring more simple percentages from 50 and 100 (states and hundreds table) to figuring sale prices of larger dollar amounts. We have faithfully completed the lessons and played the percentage/fraction games, but she has not yet been asked to find percentages of numbers larger than 100 in any exercise.

I am interested in how anyone has successfully bridged these concepts.

Thanks,

Kelly Cole

Dear Kelly,
When helping your daughter see percents greater than 100, perhaps you could ask her to picture multiple abacuses. For instance, 300 percent would be three abacuses. The idea here if for her to think abstractly, but use a visualizable tool like the abacus "in her head."

If she can't see it yet, perhaps you should take a few days off and play some more of the percent games like Percent Concentration or others in that same section. Each child has a unique time line for learning and your job is to support her as she is going through the transition from what she knows to what she is learning. Keep asking leading questions to see what she knows and play games to fill in the gaps.
Nancy

My apologies - it was lesson 27 that was throwing me! Many thanks to Julie from Activities from Learning for breaking it down for me. I thought I might have missed some important step, but really the point of the lesson is to stretch the kids from doing straightfoward percentages and fractions into thinking through larger dollar amounts (which can still be seen in groups of 100). Kind of like the suggestion about visualizing it as a multiple-abacus problem, as suggested as well.

Thanks, all you supportive math people!

Kelly Cole