Teaching Resources free worksheets!
Specials
Latest News
Best sellers
What’s New?
Let’s Shop!
Here’s a fun story to teach children how to tell the time. I’ve also included my printable clock faces so you can create your own clock for this story if you don’t already have one.
The story differentiates between the long hand and the short hand because this is what causes the most confusion, you'll need a clock with hands that you can take off and put on again. You can make a clock from the printable materials below.
I think this method works because generally we learn to tell the time with both hands at once and that is too confusing - too much information at once, so by removing one hand there is a lot of focus on the hour hand first hence less information to take in and therefore easy to understand.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin.
“A long time ago when clocks were first invented they only had one hand, the hour hand. 'Hour' is a short word which is why it is the short hand and this short hour hand touches the hour numbers.”
Throw the minute hand away.
“Now it's easy to tell the time.”
Put the hour hand on each hour number and ask what the time is.
Next you can put the hour hand half way between the hour numbers and ask where abouts the hand is between two numbers. You are looking for the answer of "half way between" so if the hour is half way between it is half past the hour. Have a practice of the hour hand on the hour and halfway between.
Once your child becomes confident with the hour and half hour times you can continue with the story.
“Everybody thought that the clock invention was a fantastic idea, but they soon began to find a problem with this clock because it only hand the short hour hand.”
Ask your child if he/she thinks there is a problem with a clock that only has one hour hand. You can guide him/her to the answer of the clock not being accurate enough. If she is familiar with quarters you can show her where ‘quarter past’ and ‘quarter to’ might be with just the hour hand.
“So the clever inventor worked out how to add another hand - the minute hand. The minute hand is the long hand because ‘minute’ is a longer word and it reaches the minute numbers around the edge of the clock.”
(retrieve the minute hand that you threw away earlier)
Focus on asking how many minutes past the hour or how many minutes to the hour with a big emphasis on the word minutes. The focus here must be on the word minute because that is what we say first i.e. 10 minutes past (hour) 6.
(If he/she hesitates after the 10 prompt with the minutes so you help your child get into the habit of saying minutes first.)
If he/she starts to confuse the hands tell him/her that the hour hand is short because 'hour' is a short word. On my clock I have made the minute hand actually reach the minutes and the hour hand reach the hours giving another reason for the hands being the length that they are.
Keep repeating the information about the size of the hour hand and minute hand and importantly why one hand is short and one hand is longer. Giving children a reason for the hands being different lengths helps them accept the information and it helps them to remember it. They’ll also remember your story about the clock with only one hand!
Here is the template to make the analogue clock. This clock face should be printed on card, or paper and then stuck to card. The minutes go up to 30 and then count back down to zero because this is how we read the analogue clock. I.e. we say 10 minutes to 3, not 50 minutes past 2.
This is the template I use the most:
Analogue template and hands (1 second intervals)
I’ve also created these templates which you may find useful:
Analogue template 2 (1 second intervals - minutes from 0-60, this can be used to understand how we say time with the digital clock.)
Analogue template (5 minute intervals)
Analogue template 2 (5 minute intervals)
Time Worksheet with 15 clock faces
To make the hands use card or perhaps you have an old plastic ice cream carton lid you could use. You must make sure that the hour hand reaches the hour numbers and the minute hand reaches the minute numbers. Use a paper fastner to attach the hands to the clock - please be careful when cutting the whole in the centre of the clock face.
Have fun... and do please let me know how you get on with you story
Let Me Learn ~ Southampton UK SO40 4YB ~ Tel: 02380 660271 ~ E-mail: info@schoolteachingresources.com~ Copyright © 2005-2008, All Rights Reserved
We are a Curriculum Online Retailer for Schools - www.schoolteachingresources.com
