Fractions of groups or money
for 5th grade

Calculate fractions of amounts

This topic is intended to help you learn or revise how to calculate a fraction of an integer. This type of calculation has many real-world applications like working out your portion of a restaurant bill or other shared cost.

So, if you needed to calculate ⅝ of $32, you could start by working out what ⅛ of 32 is, and multiply that number by 5. So,

⅛ of 32 is equivalent to 32 / 8 = 4 and ...

5 x 4 = 20 so ...

⅝ of $32 = ( 32 ÷ 8 ) x 5 = $20

As another example, in the first question from the lesson you are asked to calculate ⅖ of 40 students. There are many ways to work this out, but one way is:

(40 x 2) ÷ 5

Since 40 is divisible by 5 we could cross-cancel first which gives us:

(8 x 2) ÷ 1

So we can see that ⅖ of 40 students is 16 students.

Notes on this topic

Use a slow game like 4 in a row to practice this topic first, then when you get into a timed game like Pong, you will have had enough practice to be able to work out the questions really fast!