6th grade · Math · Unit 4 of 17
Percents & Budgets
Discounts, deals and saving
What your child practices
Finding percents of amounts, working out sale prices and savings, comparing unit prices to find the better buy, and planning a simple budget and savings goal.
Alabama Course of Study content standard: 6.3 · solving percent and rate problems with ratio reasoning
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- Percent means out of 100.
- Find 10% by dividing by 10. Find 1% by dividing by 100.
- For a discount, find the percent of the price, then subtract it.
Example: A $40 shirt is 25% off. What is the sale price? 25% is one quarter: $40 ÷ 4 = $10 off. $40 − $10 = $30. Answer: $30
Percents & Budgets in Alabama
In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 4 of 17 in 6th grade Math, after Decimal × and ÷ and before Patterns & Graphs.
Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
What percent of the bar is shaded?
answer box%
40 %
Hint: The whole bar is 100%. It has 10 equal parts, so each part is 10%. Multiply by the number of shaded parts.
Question 2
Priya already has $40 and saves $15 each week. A skateboard costs $100. How many weeks until Priya can buy it?
answer box
4
Hint: Subtract what Priya already has from the cost to find how much is still needed. Then divide by $15.
Question 3
Priya buys a board game that normally costs $50. The store takes 30% off. How many dollars does Priya save?
answer box
15
Hint: The amount saved is the discount: 30% of $50. Find 10% of $50 by dividing by 10. Then 30% is 3 times as much.
Question 4
A skateboard costs $80. It is on sale for 40% off. What is the sale price?
🛹40% off- $32
- $40
- $48
- $112
$48
Hint: First find the discount: 40% of $80. Then subtract the discount from the original price.
Question 5
Priya has a monthly budget of $90. After paying for everything in the table, how many dollars are left to save?
Priya's spending this month Item Cost Bus pass $6 Swim lessons $4 Art supplies $18 answer box
62
Hint: Add up the costs first, then subtract the total from $90.
Question 6
What is 5% of 60?
answer box
3
Hint: Find 10% of 60 (divide by 10). 5% is half of that. Build 5% from 10% and 5% pieces.