Saving and Spending

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Relevant and up-to-date teaching resources are being moved to Tāhūrangi (tahurangi.education.govt.nz). 
When all identified resources have been successfully moved, this website will close. We expect this to be in June 2024. 
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Purpose

This is a level 4 number link activity from the Figure It Out series. It relates to Stage 7 of the Number Framework.

A PDF of the student activity is included.

Achievement Objectives
NA4-3: Find fractions, decimals, and percentages of amounts expressed as whole numbers, simple fractions, and decimals.
NA4-4: Apply simple linear proportions, including ordering fractions.
Student Activity

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Specific Learning Outcomes

find a fraction of a whole number

Required Resource Materials

FIO, Link, Number, Book Five, Saving and Spending, page 11

Activity

This activity helps the students to develop an understanding of what a fraction means and how to calculate fractional amounts of a whole. Check that your students know that to find one-third of an amount, they need to divide the amount into three equal parts. Concrete materials are useful for helping those who don’t know this. You could begin with one whole (for example, one biscuit) and then move on to more than one whole (for example, six biscuits). Although this activity involves only unitary fractions (1/3 , 1/4 , and so on) you could, if you wish, extend it to finding other fractions, such as 2/3 or 3/4 , of various amounts.

This activity also provides an excellent opportunity for problem solving. Ask the students to discuss, as a class, the strategies they used for questions 1b, 3a, and 3b together with their justifications for their particular strategies and solutions. Justifying solutions is at the heart of working mathematically and is partly why Mathematics in the New Zealand Curriculum stresses the importance of students communicating mathematical ideas.

Answers to Activity

1. a. Bank account $12.00
Tuck shop $6.00
Clothes $9.00
Bike repairs $4.00
Money box $5.00
b. $162.00.
(1/3 + 1/6 + 1/4 + 1/9 = 31/36.
So $22.50 is the remaining 5/36.
22.50 ÷ 5 = 4.50 [1/36]. 36/36 = 4.50 x 36
= $162
Another way of looking at this is: $22.50 is 4 1/2 times greater than $5, so Pānia would have to earn 4 1/2 times as much. 4.5 x $36 = $162.00)
2. Savings $18.00
Tuck shop $9.00
Clothes $13.50
Skateboard $6.00
Money box $7.50
3. a. $24
b. i. Pānia needs to save 2/3 ($24.00) of her money.
ii. Budgets will vary.

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Level Four