Decimals and percentages – Year 5 maths lesson

Lesson 24 of 39 in the Year 5 maths course

UK version. UK school years, UK spelling and pounds (£). · US Math Department

A complete 45-minute lesson for Year 5 (ages 9–10) that runs on this page – at school or at home. Every answer is marked straight away, with a worked explanation.

Time: 45 minutes + 20 min homework
Year: Year 5 (ages 9–10)
You need: Paper, a pencil and this page
Marked: Instantly, with explanations

For parents: how to use this lesson

You don't need to know this topic yourself. The lesson explains each step on screen, one tidy step at a time. Every answer is marked straight away with a worked explanation, so you never have to mark anything.

Read what your child will learn and the big ideas together.
Press Start the lesson below and sit with your child for the teaching and the worked examples (about 19 minutes).
Let them do the practice on their own. They choose Getting started, On track or Challenge – start on On track and move up after a few right in a row.
Finish with the exit ticket and the talk question: “Which is bigger, 0.6 or 55%? How do you know?”
Later that day or the next day: the homework (20 minutes), then a practice test.

Watch out for

Thinking 0.125 is bigger than 0.5 because it has more digits. Line up the decimal points and compare the tenths first.
Writing 5% as 0.5. Per cent is out of 100: 5% is 5 hundredths, 0.05.

Tip for home: Spot percentages in shops and on food labels, and say them as decimals.

What your child will learn

We are learning to use thousandths, convert decimals to fractions and understand per cent.

Success looks like

I can read and write thousandths.
I can change between decimals, fractions and percentages.
I can solve simple percentage problems.

Key words

thousandth: one of 1,000 equal parts
per cent: out of 100 (%)
decimal: a number with a decimal point
simplify: write a fraction with smaller numbers

What to have ready

Paper and a pencil
This page on a computer, tablet or phone
For the hands-on part: Make a fraction, decimal and percentage matching game with cards such as 1/2, 0.5 and 50%.

The big ideas (for the adult)

Thousandths are one more place after the point: 0.007 is 7 thousandths.

Per cent means "out of 100", so 35% is 35 hundredths, or 0.35.

To change a decimal to a fraction, read its place value: 0.4 is 4 tenths, which simplifies to 2 fifths.

The lesson, step by step

45 minutes in 5 parts
Part	Time	How it is checked
Starter: quick recall	5 min	Marked by Classfern
Teaching input	10 min	Not assessed, self-checked
Worked examples and guided practice	9 min	Not assessed, marked by Classfern
Independent practice	15 min	Marked by Classfern
Plenary and exit ticket	6 min	Marked by Classfern, self-checked

Starter, "your turn", practice and exit ticket are marked by Classfern. Worked examples and teaching are not assessed. The hands-on task and the reflection are self-assessed. Explanations in talk are judged by the parent and not recorded.

The lesson

It runs here on the page. No sign-up and no names – progress is kept only in this browser.

Homework and practice at home

20 minutes: 10 practice questions, 3 multiple-choice questions and 2 to remember from earlier work, then a short reflection. New questions every time, all marked instantly.

More practice

Year 5 decimals and percentages testMarked instantly

All Year 5 maths lessons and tests · Maths Department

More Year 5 maths lessons

Curriculum

National Curriculum for England, Year 5: “read and write decimal numbers as fractions [for example, 0.71 = [Fraction:71/100] ]”

National Curriculum for England, Year 5: “recognise and use thousandths and relate them to tenths, hundredths and decimal equivalents”

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Our lessons and questions are our own. They are not written or endorsed by any government department, testing agency or exam board.