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Fractions, Decimals and Percentages

CAPS Senior Phase Mathematics (South Africa): Grade 8–9

8 ready-made resources for teaching Fractions, Decimals and Percentages, written for CAPS Senior Phase Mathematics. Slides, worksheets, mark schemes, homework, an assessment and retrieval quizzes, all with SEN-friendly scaffolding built in as standard. Below is what the topic requires and where learners usually go wrong, free to read whether or not you sign up.

Independently rechecked. These files were written to the specification from our own topic maps, then put through a separate recheck pass from the one that wrote them, which found and fixed real errors. A subject teacher has not signed them off individually, so give them your usual read before you teach from them.

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What is in this bundle

Assessment mark schemeWord, editable
End-of-topic assessmentWord, editable
HomeworkWord, editable
Retrieval-practice quizzesWord, editable
SlidesPowerPoint, editable
Starter & exit ticketWord, editable
Worksheet (Grade 8 & 9)Word, editable
Worksheet mark schemeWord, editable

Grade 8

Work with equivalent forms of common fractions, and order and compare them.
Add, subtract, multiply, and divide common fractions (division is new at Grade 8: Grade 7 covered only addition, subtraction and multiplication).
Order and compare decimals to three decimal places; add, subtract, multiply and divide decimals to three decimal places, including dividing a decimal by another decimal to two decimal places (Grade 7 only required dividing a decimal by a whole number); round decimals to two decimal places (Grade 7 required only one decimal place).
Order, compare, determine, and solve problems involving percentages.
Find the square, cube, square root, or cube root of a rational number given in decimal form (e.g. a number like 0,25), extending the Exponents and Roots topic's whole-number work to decimals.
Convert between equivalent forms of common fractions, decimal fractions, and percentages.
Solve problems by choosing a sensible strategy for the situation: estimating first, working to at least two decimal places, and converting units where the problem calls for it.

Grade 9, in addition

Apply all of the above, common fractions, decimal fractions, and percentages, to solve problems in more complex, realistic contexts. There is no new conversion or calculation skill introduced at Grade 9; the emphasis shifts entirely to problem-solving depth.

Where learners go wrong

Dividing fractions by multiplying straight across instead of multiplying by the reciprocal of the divisor.
Misplacing the decimal point when multiplying or dividing decimals, especially when dividing a decimal by a decimal.
Rounding a decimal answer at an intermediate step of a multi-step problem instead of only at the final answer, causing accumulated rounding error.
Converting between fractions, decimals, and percentages inconsistently within the same problem (e.g. leaving one quantity as a fraction and another as a percentage before comparing them).

How it gets asked in the exam

"Calculate ...", "Determine the value of ... as a percentage", "Convert ... to a decimal fraction", "Round off your answer to two decimal places", "Solve the problem in context, showing your working".

Key vocabulary

Common fraction, equivalent fraction, decimal fraction, percentage, rounding, estimation, S.I. units.

Assumed prior knowledge

Common fraction addition, subtraction and multiplication; decimal ordering, comparison, and operations to at least two decimal places; percentage ordering, comparison and basic calculation (all Grade 7 content, at a lower level of precision/complexity than Grade 8).
Confident whole-number arithmetic.

How Speca scaffolds this topic

Provide a single equivalent-forms reference grid (fraction / decimal / percentage) that stays visually consistent across the whole topic, so converting between forms is a lookup habit rather than a recalculated rule each time.
Chunk decimal division into an explicit "shift both decimal points to make the divisor a whole number, then divide" routine, since this is the step most likely to be skipped or done incorrectly.
South African decimal convention: use a comma as the decimal separator throughout (e.g. 0,75, not 0.75), this applies with particular force in this topic, since decimal notation is the topic's own subject matter.

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