Fractions, Decimals and Percentages Lesson – Plan a Park



In this lesson, students use the real-life connection of planning a park to learn about equivalence in fractions, decimals and percentages. They learn about the meaning of 1.0 and 100% and 100/100 while creating their own, fun and newly designed park. A great lesson that can be modified for older students by adding more squares.

Australian Curriculum Links:

  • Make connections between equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages (ACMNA131)Solve problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions with the same or related denominators(ACMNA126)
  • Find a simple fraction of a quantity where the result is a whole number, with and without digital technologies (ACMNA127)
  • Add and subtract decimals, with and without digital technologies, and use estimation and rounding to check the reasonableness of answers (ACMNA128)
  • Connect fractions, decimals and percentages and carry out simple conversions (ACMNA157)


  1.  On an interactive whiteboard, bring up Plan a Park (Link will open in a new window.
  2. Play the game going through all the scenarios that it gives you and ask students to notice what is happening on the right hand side (where it is displaying its percentage, decimal or fraction.
  3. If you have a class set of computers, get the kids to do it on them (it’s better if everyone has a go).
  4. Once finished, ask students if they could tell you equivalences for the following:
  • 1/2 (50% or 0.50)
  • 0.25 (25% or 25/100)
  • 14% (0.14 or 14/100)
  1. Hand out a 100 grid to each child in the class (for extension, give the kids 2 or 4 grids to be joined together)
  2. Tell the students that they are now going to become landscape architects and create their own park that must include the following then set to work.
  • Playgrounds
  • Grass
  • Trees
  • Water
  • Sporting grounds
  • Something else

Just let them go at this point, they’ll love the creation part of it! Maybe just remind them to outline their park first before they go into high detail with the colour, etc.


  1. Once students have created their park, ask them to now calculate the fraction of each part of their park (playgrounds, water, etc) and write this in a table like the one below.

plan a park table

  1. I suggest modelling this to them so they know how to rule it up properly and fill it in correctly.
  2. Once they have finished, ask them to find the equivalences for each of their spaces.
  3. Once they have done that, ask them to add up each column and write the total at the bottom.
  4. Explain that if they have calculated their fractions, decimals and percentages properly the columns should add up to 100/100, 1.0 and 100% respectively.
  5. Discuss what their thoughts are now on fractions, decimals and percentages. Hopefully it is a bit more clear that they are all linked and one of the same thing.


  • Collect work sample
  • Use books to check calculations of adding decimals, percentages and fractions.


  • Workbooks
  • Pencils and Pens
  • Calculators (to check working out only)
  • Grid Paper (10 x 10)
  • Plan a Park (Looks like the image below)

Plan a park interactive game2

Plan a park interactive game



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