Telling the Time Teaching Resources
Browse telling the time worksheets, clock games and templates and more teacher-created resources to help your students learn how to read digital and analogue clocks.
Aligned with Australian maths curriculum standards, this collection is stocked with everything you need to build lesson plans that engage your students and make it fun to learn all about how we tell time. Each resource has undergone careful review by a member of our teacher team to ensure it's ready for your classroom and your students!
New to teaching students how to tell time or just looking for some fresh ideas? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including a look at whether or not kids should learn to read analogue clocks and some of our teacher team's favourite activities and tips for teaching kids to tell what time it is.
What Is 'Telling Time?' A Kid-Friendly Definition
Your students have likely heard people talk about time countless ... well ... times in their young lives. Still, it can be helpful to kick off your time-telling unit with an explanation of what it actually means to tell time.
Here's one from our teacher team that's just for kids:
Telling time is understanding what the clock is showing us so that we know what time it is.
Teaching Time With Analogue Clocks vs. Digital Clocks — Which Is Better?
Maybe you have an analogue clock in your classroom ... then again, your students may have never even seen an analog clock! So, do you really need to teach students how to read one?
The answer is yes!
Kids should certainly learn how to tell digital time. But even as cellphone clocks and digital watches have become ubiquitous, knowing how to read an 'old-fashioned' analogue clock remains an important skill and a standard in the Australian curriculum!
Benefits of Reading Analogue Clocks
There are myriad benefits to this, and not just because it ensures kids will be able to tell time if they're in a situation where the only clock available sports hour and minute hands.
- Counting by 5s — as you do when reading an analogue clock — is a skill that will help students when they begin to learn multiplication.
- Analogue clocks reinforce the concept of a difference between two numbers.
- Traditional clocks help our students grapple with the concept of elapsed time as they provide a visual representation.
5 Parts of an Analog Clock to Teach Your Students
Teaching students how to read a clock typically begins by teaching kids about the different parts of a clock — from the face to the various hands. Here are the four main parts of an analog clock or watch:
1. Clock Face
The 'face' of a clock is the area that is marked with numbers and sometimes marked with small lines to represent the minutes.
2. Numbers
Most clocks and watches are marked with numbers that represent the hours. The space between them is divided into minutes.
3. Hour Hand
Most clocks have at least two 'hands' on the face. The hour hand is the shortest and thickest hand, and it points to the hour.
4. Minute Hand
The minute hand on most clocks or watches is the part that points to the minutes. It is longer than the hour hand, and it is thicker than the second hand.
5. Second Hand
Some — but not all — clocks and watches featured a thin third hand. Just as the name implies, the second hand is the hand that points to the seconds.
How to Teach Kids to Tell the Time — Activity Ideas for Your Classroom
Looking for more tips on teaching kids to tell time? Our teacher team has stocked this collection with plenty of resources to help kids learn the difference between a minute and an hour, how to use a.m. and p.m. and more, but we didn't stop there!
Here are a few favourite activities and tips that you might want to try in your classroom!
- Build telling time into your classroom routines. For example, you might say, 'We have 20 minutes to do this. What time will it be when we're done?' or 'We will have tea at 11:40. Where will the hands of the clock be?"
- Give your students plenty of practise with writing the time by making it part of your daily maths warm-up.
- When you provide times for upcoming events, don't just provide the literal time but also what it would look like on the clock. For example, 'In 15 minutes, when the hour hand is on the 1 and the minute hand is on the 7, we will line up for recess.'
- Hang two clocks in your classroom to make a two-step process out of learning to tell time. One clock can display the hour hand, while the other displays the minute hand!
- Plus Plan
Telling Time to the Minute – Kaboom Game
Practise telling time to the minute with an exciting game of Telling Time Kaboom!
- Plus Plan
Analogue and Digital Clock Coding Robot Mat
Practise telling time on analogue and digital clocks with coding robots!
- Plus Plan
AM or PM? Year 4 Time Game
Differentiate between events that occur in A.M. and P.M. times with an interactive self-checking maths game.
- Plus Plan
Telling Time to the Minute – Memory Game
Practise telling time to the minute with a printable time-to-the-minute game.
- Plus Plan
Time to the Hour & Half-Hour Playdough Mats
Use playdough to practise telling time to the hour and half hour with printable playdough mats for early years.
- Plus Plan
Hours, Seconds & Minutes - Estimating Time Sort
Estimate activities that take about a second, minute, hour, and week with a printable units of time sorting activity.
- Plus Plan
Telling the Time Year 2 Tarsia Puzzle
Solve the tarsia puzzle and practise matching digital times with their corresponding word forms.
- Plus Plan
Digital Clock Template
Use an interactive digital clock to practice telling time during daily classroom calendar lessons.
- Plus Plan
Time Dominoes - Five Minute Intervals
Practise telling time to the nearest 5 minutes by matching 32 analogue and digital clock dominoes.
- Plus Plan
Time to the Minute Poke Cards
Practise reading analogue clocks and telling time to the minute with this set of self-checking poke cards.
- Plus Plan
A.M. and P.M. Matching Game
Identify what happens in the A.M. and P.M. times with a fun matching game.
- Plus Plan
Interactive Clock for Teaching Time (Analogue and Digital)
Teach time with an interactive digital clock designed to add a hands-on element to this important primary school lesson!
- Plus Plan
Telling the Time Unit Plan - Year 1 and Year 2
This Mathematics unit addresses the concept of telling the time to the hour, half hour and quarter hour.
- Plus Plan
Telling the Time to the Quarter Hour (2)
A 60 minute lesson in which students will tell the time to the quarter hour on analogue clocks.
- Plus Plan
Telling the Time to the Quarter Hour (1)
A 60 minute lesson in which students will tell the time to the quarter hour on analogue clocks.
- Plus Plan
Telling the Time Assessment - Year 1 and Year 2
A 60 minute assessment designed to assess student learning.
- Plus Plan
Reading an Analogue Clock
A 60 minute lesson in which students will understand and recognise the features of the analogue clock.
- Plus Plan
Revising Analogue and Digital Time
A 60 minute lesson in which students will revise analogue and digital times.
- Plus Plan
Reading a Digital Clock
A 60 minute lesson in which students will understand and recognise the features of the digital clock; and differentiate between digital and analogue clocks.