Help with word problem

[pakaramom]

This is from my son's 5th grade homework. he's been working on fractions and I'm just not sure how to do this problem.

The 5th Grade marching band includes boys and girls.
The 52 boys are 4/9 of the students in the marching band.

a. What fraction of the students in the marching band are girls? We got this as 5/9

b. What is the total number of the students in the marching band?

c. What percent of the students in the marching band are boys? I think we can do this part if we can have help with b.

Thanks!

 

[pakaramom]

Thanks! I'm finding part of the problem is explaining it in a way consistent with what they're learning in class. I showed him this way and then tried to think about a different way and used:

Since 4/9 = 52, 1/9 = 13.
so 5/9 = 65
65+52 = 117

thanks again! I've been looking at older posts and am finding this forum a GREAT resource.