Telling time

Students will demonstrate telling time to the nearest minute kinesthetically. A large clock is made on the floor by using masking tape and index cards. The index cards serve as the numbers and the masking tape serves as the minutes.

A lesson plan for grades 2–3 Mathematics

By Tracy Gregory

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Related pages

• What time is it?: Students will learn to recognize analog and digital clocks. They will also gain skills to tell time to the hour on both clocks.
• Hands up for telling time: This introductory lesson on telling time will expose children to clocks and how they work. Children will begin to understand how to tell time and how the two separate hands on the clock operate. They will also gain understanding of the concept of time in general.
• Color-coded time: This lesson introduces telling time to the minute using the analog and digital clocks. The hands are color-coded to assist with hour and minute hand discrimination. The student will use the time on the digital clock, which can then be transferred to the more difficult analog clock.

Related topics

• Learn more about kinesthetic learners, mathematics, measurement, and telling time.

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Learning outcomes

The students will demonstrate knowledge in telling time to the nearest minute.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

45 minutes

Materials/resources

• index cards
• masking tape
• miniature clocks

Pre-activities

Students should know how to tell time to the nearest five minutes.

Activities

1. The teacher will focus students’ attention to the clock made on the floor.
2. The teacher will then point out that the small strips of masking tape represent one minute.
3. The teacher will stand on the index card numbered twelve, step on the first strip of masking tape, count one, two, three, etc., and stop on the index card numbered one. Students will visually see and count orally with the teacher the minutes displayed from 12 to 1.
4. Afterward, the teacher will step on another strip of masking tape. It may be seven minutes after the hour. The teacher instructs the student to step on the index card numbered one and asks the student how many minutes after the hour is that. The student should respond five minutes. The student should then step on two more strips of masking tape and count six, seven. This is done several times until the teacher is comfortable with the progress of the students.
5. Students are then placed in pairs with miniature clocks.

Assessment

• After extensive practice using the clock on the floor, each student is given a miniature clock.
• The students are to make their clocks correspond to the time that the teacher says orally. This allows the teacher to informally assess the students’ understanding of the concept of telling time to the nearest minute.
• Finally, a formal assessment is administered by giving students a worksheet which displays clocks that have times to the nearest minute. The students are to write the time for each clock pictured. For example, your worksheet might display clocks reading 11:31, 12:11, 5:42, and so forth.

Supplemental information

You may use flash cards with clocks, a CD ROM with clock games, and various forms of handouts depicting time.

Comments

A journal idea for this lesson would be to ask the students to keep track of their before and after school schedule. Record the times you wake up, leave for school, arrive home, do your homework, eat dinner, and go to sleep. Write the times, using words or numbers.