Last Updated on September 13, 2023 by Editorial Team
How can one teach percentage by using games? Many people wonder about the connection between playing elementary math games and learning concepts like a percentage. So, if you are one of them, I will ask you to take a look at children when they are playing games. How absorbed, and determined to win or to improve scores they look while staying glued to their mobile phones! Won’t it be great if you leverage this kind of undivided concentration in driving them to learn something beneficial to them? If you agree, you must read this post of mine.
In this post, I plan to share with you:
- How percentage games are useful for math beginners
- List of the best percentage games designed for early learners
- Primary outcomes games for learning percentage offered to kids
So, shall we start?
How percentage games are useful for math beginners?
The use of games in teaching math skills has always been under researchers’ scanner. Some call the games a distraction, but a majority vote in their favor because:
- Games for learning concepts of percentage are available anywhere, anytime as these are available on mobile phones which are practically present all around us these days.
- The games can be timed as per the need of the learner. Since every learner has a different learning speed, they can comfortably grasp the percentage concept in a self-paced manner[1].
- Games help enhance the percentage’s reasoning and enable a better understanding of this concept’s practical utility
- Games offer an engaging tool that drives children to practice repeatedly. So, the ease of attaining fluency in practicing percentage problems is achieved.
- Games involve children deeply in the learning process and help improve concentration.
Now that you know why we emphasize playing games to teach percentage, won’t you want to know about the best online games on the percentage concept? I enlist here an elucidated list of games for learning percentages that help you gain mastery in converting percentages into fractions, and decimals and perform other related operations.
8 Online games for learning the concept of percentages
1. Percentage Game for Kids
Color it to learn it! This game requires students to color the number of blocks equal to the percentage hint provided. Early learners can choose the starter level where they get a relaxed mode to play this game. Finding percentages from a 10×10 matrix is a bit easier. Thus, it helps speed up the calculations involved and strengthen their learning of percentages.
By moving to a timed way of playing this game, the learners can take a tougher challenge and attain calculation fluency along with more refined motor skills. The best advantages of this percentage game suitable for math beginners are color recognition, calculation proficiency, and improved hand-eye coordination.
2. Playground Percentages
A local town planner is seeking help in designing a school! Players in this game get the perfect opportunity to put their planning skills into action while refining their knowledge of percentages. They also get the idea of how to use percentage in daily life.
The game begins with a large, empty land divided into small squares. Guidelines on the right side tell what percentage of the total area must be reserved for each section of the school, like classrooms, canteen, car park, etc.
As the game proceeds, players put their percentage skills to the test by selecting the correct number of squares to depict a particular percentage. There is even a number line available at the bottom depicting the percentages in fractions. The game continues until the player strategically designs the school layout and effectively uses 100% of the land area available for school development.
3. Town Creator
Here is another fun online game for budding town creators! The rules are simple. Players can select if they wish to solve questions up to 100% or make the game more challenging by attempting to solve problems up to 200%.
A percentage-related math question appears on the screen. Players must read the question and select the correct answer from the four options provided. One right answer means a brand new house is added to your town. As the game proceeds, players can make their animated town look more real-like by adding elements like cars, trees, tall buildings, and more.
4. Fraction Percentage Snap
The equation a/b*100 gives us the percentage value; this game allows you to internalize this concept by pressing the P or Q button on the keyboard when the percentage value flashing in the answer card below shows the correct answer. This means, if the answer below the hint square containing 1/10 appears as 10%, the learner needs to press P or Q to register the match.
Every correct match earns the player a point. You can amplify the challenge by picking the faster mode available in the game. This percent-to-fraction and fraction-to-percent conversion game helps students to be calculation experts and brings fluency in their way of converting percentages to fractions and vice versa.
5. Percentage Game – Dividing space into different elements
Learn how the concept of percentage works by assigning various portions of the garden according to the percentages mentioned. You can pick the icons of elements and convert grass tiles into them during the gameplay.
The grassy region is actually a 10×10 matrix, so picking the correct number of tiles according to percentage is a bit easier for early learners. It helps them become confident about calculating percentages. Best suited for middle schoolers, this game helps brush up on math calculation, and reasoning skills the same way as activities help in improving reasoning skills.. With a time-pressed way of playing, motor skills become easy to enhance apart from earning fluency in calculations.
Game Link: Web App
6. 7th Grade Percentage of Numbers Game
Want to be a calculation nerd and fluent in finding percentages? This game offers a perfect setting for practicing percentage calculations. This game allows the learners to take time at their convenience at the start. On gaining confidence, the early learners can shorten the time limit of the round.
A very interesting part of this game is the fishing activity, which forms an engaging method to improve concentration and bring more finesse to motor skills. The need to do multiple activities simultaneously brings flexibility in cognition apart from giving help in doing percentage calculations speedily.
7. Bin, Bing, Bingo
Bingo is a popular game among individuals and crowds. With this in mind, the makers of this game have seamlessly blended learning and practicing percentages with it. The game requires players to swiftly make calculations for questions like “What is 10% of 100?” and so on. The three levels of the game are great for challenging yourself to take on tricky percentage calculations.
The game starts with a 5×5 grid with numbers on each square. These numbers are nothing but answers to the question displayed at the top. Players need to solve these questions and mark the square with the correct answer. The goal of this game is to mark five correct answers in a row to complete the BINGO challenge.
8. Online Percentage Practice
Find fun and learning combined tastefully in this game for practicing percentage. Learners are not given only the challenge to find value corresponding to a percentage, they also need to find the n% of single-, double-, and even three-digit numbers.
Every correct answer opens a part of the jigsaw puzzle compelling students to do calculations speedily. Hence, this game encourages to do the correct calculation, and with repeated playing, the time required in solving the jigsaw puzzle will reduce surely.
To sum up,
Gamification of percentage-solving activity helps math beginners to fight their math anxiety[2] away. The stress of being right is replaced by the curiosity to score higher in games, encouraging children to practice more, and with full heart and mind into it. This enhanced level of engagement is what games can help achieve while mastering percentage calculation.
References
- Batzogiannis, Ilias & Hatzikraniotis, Evripidis & Papadopoulos, Anestis & Papadopoulos, Petros & Zoungouridis, Panagiotis. (2018). USING A MATH GAME TO IMPROVE BASIC MATH SKILLS. 3310-3316. 10.21125/inted.2018.0634.
- Jagušt, Tomislav & Boticki, Ivica & So, Hyo-Jeong. (2018). Examining competitive, collaborative and adaptive gamification in young learners’ math learning. Computers & Education. 125. 10.1016/j.compedu.2018.06.022.
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,