Early concepts of time
Before you spend too much time planning wonderful 'clock' lessons, check your learners informal understanding of time. Can they:- use and understand basic terms like daytime, night time, yesterday, today, tomorrow, all day, in a while, in a long while etc
- sequence events in a day
- sequence events over a day
- use the names of the days of the week correctly
- identify significant and relevant times in their life
- compare the duration of a few events
- use informal units to show the passing of time
- use calendars, days and dates
- recognize the months of the year and seasons?
Our Math Pack 16 will help with some of these early concepts.
Two of the activities in our latest Math Pack 28 will require your learners to tell time to the hour and match it on digital and analog clocks. Digital and analog times can be taught concurrently.
Tips for teaching time
Here are some things to consider when you are teaching this unit:- keep a clock, with big clear numbers, visible in the classroom at all times
- students should be able to see a clock in the classroom at all times - this will assist them in understanding that time is continuous
- some learners will be able to tell you the time but will have limited sense of the passing of time / continuous nature of time
- relate your activities to the world of the students as much as possible - e.g. 'we eat lunch at 1 o'clock'
- make explicit that 5 o'clock in the morning is not the same as 5 o'clock in the evening
- use terms like 'hour hand' and 'minute hand' rather than 'big and little hands'
- consider that some learners may not have clocks at home and will have had very limited experience telling time
Matching digital and analog hour time
Time to Match is one game in Math Pack 28. Learners will match a digital time clock and analog clock. An accompanying worksheet will challenge them to write and draw these times also.
Our fun, bright and happy designs will engage your students and have them wanting to play over-and-over again!
If you find that some students are playing this game easily - challenge them to:
- sequence the times
- on scrap paper, draw something that happens in their life to match each time
- on a whiteboard, copy the clocks
- pivot and work on addition: roll two dice, add the numbers, find the number on the clock and cover it with a token - fist to cover all numbers wins (number 1 can be covered as a free turn)
- record the time that is 1, 2 or 3 hours after each
I have prepared a bonus game for you also - Hour Before and After. It is over in our store and you can download it for free.
Students will need to determine the time that is one hour before and one hour after each of the clocks shown on the game mats. Simply print the pages, laminate if desired and you are all set. A recording page is included as well as a cover page for organizing your resources.
And if you are in the Coloring Club, be sure to find the clock page to color. Becoming familiar with the layout of a clock is important for our learners and something that requires a fair amount of repetition and repeated exposure.
After your lessons, check that students can show you times on a clock using the hands. Can they use the classroom clock to tell you the time? Have you provided them with opportunities to share their personal experience with time and clocks? Are they ready to learn time to the half hour?
I'll be back in a while with some half-hour time ideas. Have a lovely day!