LESSON PLAN

Financial Percentages: Sales Tax, Tips, and Discounts

Apothem Team

Grade 7 · Financial Literacy

LESSON AT A GLANCE

Warm-up

5 min

Explore

15 min

Formalize

10 min

Practice

12 min

Exit ticket

3 min

Warm-up

Quick calculation: What is 10% of $50? (It's$ 5.) Use this to find 20% mentally.

Explore

Students calculate tax on mock purchases, figure tips on restaurant bills, and determine sale prices. Use mental math strategies where possible. Build fluency with common percentages (10%, 20%, 15%, 25%).

Formalize

Write the formulas:

Tax: Total = Price × (1 + tax%). Tip: Tip = Bill × tip%. Discount: Sale Price = Original × (1 − discount%).

Teach mental math: 10% is 1/10, 20% is 1/5, 25% is 1/4. Use these anchors to estimate quickly.

Practice

Students solve tax, tip, and discount problems. Exit ticket: one multi-step financial calculation.

Exit ticket

Students solve tax, tip, and discount problems. Exit ticket: one multi-step financial calculation.

TIP Use real receipts and menus. Real context makes learning relevant.

WORKED EXAMPLES

A $60 jacket is on sale for 25% off. What is the sale price?

Discount: 0.25 × $60 =$ 15. Sale price: $60 −$ 15 = $45. (Or:$ 60 × 0.75 = $45.)

Your restaurant bill is $45. You want to tip 20%. How much is the tip?

Tip: 0.20 × $45 =$ 9.

MATERIALS

•Receipts or mock receipts

•Price tags with discounts

•Calculators

•Menu samples

WATCH FOR

!Adding tax/tip wrong (multiplying by the percentage instead of the multiplier like 1.08).

!Subtracting discount wrong (forgetting to find the percentage first).

!Not accounting for total in multi-step problems.