Three activity sheets help develop and reinforce students'
- develop time-telling skills, one skill at a time.
- understand the connection between time on digital and analog (clock-face) clocks.
Clock, time, telling time, digital, analog, minutes, seconds,
hours, quick-tivity, measurement
- clock with hands (often called an analog clock) and a digital clock (optional)
- three activity sheets (provided)
- copier and transparency sheets to produce overhead transparencies for each work sheet (optional)
We live in a digital world. It used to be that telling time
required a second language. No longer are kids required to
translate the time on a clock face to hour:minute (hh:mm)
form. Still, that is a skill that every student needs to have
and so teachers need to teach it. The resources in this lesson
will help you teach and reinforce that skill.
Teaching the skill of telling time is one that requires
patience and planning. Skills must be carefully sequenced
so students learn to tell time by the
- hour, then
- half hour, then
- quarter hour (quarter past and quarter to), and finally
The resources below are intended to help you teach each
of those skills. Once each skill is taught, the resources
also can be used to reinforce those skills. It is good to
vary the use of these resources with other kinds of reinforcement,
such as flash cards, additional work sheets, and spur-of-the-moment
If you use a daily math reinforcement activity
sheet -- a sheet that provides students with practice in the
math skills they have mastered -- as part of your daily routine,
that sheet should include a daily clock activity; for example,
a clock face for which students must provide the time in hh:mm
format (e.g., 6:15) or in words (quarter past 6).
Print this resource and copy it onto a transparency for whole-class
or group practice. Use an overhead projector to display the
transparency on a screen or the classroom chalk or white board.
- If you display the transparency on a board, simply write
a time (e.g., 6:15) in the windows of the digital clock.
Then have a student come forward to draw on the board the
hands that show that time on the clock face. Ask the rest
of the class for feedback. Did the student draw the clock
correctly? Wipe off the transparency and present another
time for the next student to draw.
- For a different kind of practice, draw a clock face and
have students write the correct time in the digital clock
Draw or Write
the Time work sheet
Once you have done the class/group activity suggested above,
use this work sheet to provide students with individual practice
writing digital times and/or drawing clock faces. Following
are some suggested ways for using the work sheet:
- A good way to begin using the work sheet -- and to reinforce
skills as you develop them sequentially -- is to provide
each student with a copy of the work sheet. Use the transparency
to present a time in either digital or analog (clock-face)
form. Have students copy that time onto the face of the
digital or analog clock beside the number 1, and then have
them provide that time in the other format. Then use the
transparency to present digital or analog clock 2
- Create a transparency from the Draw or Write the Time
student work sheet, and provide a variety of clock faces
or digital clock times for students to copy. For each clock
face, students must provide the digital form of the time.
For each digital time, they must draw a clock face showing
that time. (The first time you use this sheet, you might
present one time at a time and check student work as you
go. Eventually you will be able to present a full sheet
of clocks and allow students to work independently to complete
- Print a copy of the work sheet to use as a master copy.
Write a variety of digital times and/or draw a variety of
clock faces directly onto the copy of the master. Make copies
and provide one for each student to complete.
- Use the Draw or Write the Time work sheet to tailor individual
work sheets for students or groups of students who need
practice in specific time-telling skills.
Match the Times activity
Once students have used the Draw or Write the Time work sheet
above, you can use this additional activity sheet to assess
their skills. Simply print the Match the Times page and use
it to create a matching activity. Draw hands on the blank
analog clock faces to show a variety of times, write those
times at random in each of the digital clock windows, and
ask students to draw a line connecting the matching times.
This activity can be done as you develop students time-telling
skills (telling time by the hour first, then by the half hour,
and so on), as a mastery test for students who have been
taught all time-telling skills, or as an occasional reinforcement
activity to ensure that students do not lose the skills they
have learned. The activity sheet also could be copied onto
a transparency for whole-class or small-group practice or
review, or as a tool for having students correct their own
For additional reinforcement, see the following
Education World lesson plans:
(A Hands-On Activity)
To test students' skills as you develop them, or to test
mastery of all time-telling skills, use the Draw
or Write the Time work sheet or the Match
the Times activity sheet to create an assessment activity.
Lesson Plan Source
GRADES Pre-K - 2
Understand Measurable Attributes of Objects and the Units,
Systems, and Processes of Measurement
NM-MEA.PK-2.2 Apply Appropriate Techniques, Tools, and Formulas to Determine Measurements
GRADES 3 - 5
NM-MEA.3-5.1 Understand Measurable Attributes of Objects and the Units, Systems, and Processes of Measurement
NM-MEA.3-5.2 Apply Appropriate Techniques, Tools, and Formulas to Determine Measurements
GRADES 6 - 8
NM-MEA.6-8.1 Understand Measurable Attributes of Objects and the Units, Systems, and Processes of Measurement
NM-MEA.6-8.2 Apply Appropriate Techniques, Tools, and Formulas to Determine Measurements
GRADES Pre-K - 12
NM-COMM.PK-12.1 Organize and Consolidate Their Mathematical Thinking Through Communication
NM-COMM.PK-12.4 Use the Language of Mathematics to Express Mathematical Ideas Precisely
GRADES Pre-K - 12
NM-REP.PK-12.1 Create and Use Representations to Organize, Record, and Communicate Mathematical Ideas
Find more activities for teaching basic math skills in Education World's Math
Subject Center. There you will find lesson plans for teaching
math skills by using the phone book and many more fun activities.
Click to return to this week's Lesson Planning article,
It's About Time: Teaching Students to Tell Time.
Originally published 05/09/2003
Last updated 05/25/2009