Being able to tell the time is an important life skill that is best taught on a one to one basis. Home learning is an ideal time for this to happen and you are probably already teaching your child some of these skills without even realising it!

Teaching Your Child About Time

We have put together this document to break down the big concept into simple, manageable steps. Each page is the year group in which we would normally teach each step. However, it is important to know that some children have a well-developed sense of time and others do not. A year 6 child may need to revise telling time on a clock face, whilst a younger child may be working out the duration of a TV programme.

Please ask your child’s teacher for advice if you are unsure which step to start on or you need help or further resources.

Some resources you may find useful Make a cardboard clock with moveable hands https://www.instructables.com/id/Cardboard-Clock-for-Learning/

Online stopwatch and countdown timer https://www.online-stopwatch.com/

EYFS

Learning Step Key Vocabulary and Questions

Order important times in the day and week.

Describe when things happen

now, before, later, soon, next, first, then, after, yesterday, today, tomorrow

After breakfast, we can… What should we do next? What did we do yesterday? What would you like to do tomorrow?

Measure time in simple ways eg count number of sleeps, using a timer

How many sleeps until..? Can you run for 1 minute?

Example Activities Read familiar stories and fairy tales. Talk about the order of events using key vocabulary.

What did Jack do next? What will the Hungry Caterpillar eat tomorrow?

Go outside with a timer and see what the children can do in a period of time.

How many star jumps can you do in 10 seconds? How many bean bags can you get in the hoop in 1 minute?

Do some cooking together. Draw pictures to show the steps in a recipe. Use key vocabulary. Muddle up the pictures and have a go at re-ordering them.

Make a recipe book.

Year 1

Learning Step Key Vocabulary and Questions

Know days of the week and months of the year

They can pick out special dates like their birthday.

Know there are 7 days in a week.

days, week, month, year, morning, afternoon, evening What do we need to do next? What day is it today? Which month is your birthday in?

Tell the time to the hour (eg 2 o’clock)

and half hour (half past 3)

and draw hands on a clock face to show these times.

(At half past, the hour hand is half way between the numbers)

clock face, o’clock, half past, hour hand, minute hand Where will the hour hand be at 2 o’clock/ half past 3?

Explore the difference between seconds, minutes and hours.

Compare amounts of time using faster, slower, earlier, later.

Second, minute, hour, faster, slower, earlier, later.

How many star jumps can you do in 10 seconds? Who is faster in our race to build a tower?

Example Activities

Learn a days of the week and months of the year song.

Muddle up the days of the week and months of the year. Have a go at reordering them.

Create a clock face and label o’clock, half past, hour and minute hand.

Ask your child to show a time and read a time.

Set up a family competi-tion. Predict who will win each event.

Who can hop for the longest time? How long? Who can hold their breath for longer? Time it. Choose a car will go down a ramp the slowest?

Year 2

Learning Step Key Vocabulary and Questions

Read and draw times ‘quarter to’ and ‘quarter past’

Recognise that the hour hand moves with the minute hand so at quarter past the hour hand will be just past the hour and at quarter to the hour hand will be just be-fore the hour.

quarter to, quarter past If the minute hand is pointing at 3, have many minutes have passed the hour? Show me quarter past/to..?

Be confident in counting from 0 to 60 in steps of 5.

Understand terms clockwise and anticlockwise

clockwise, anticlockwise Count around the clock. Which way shall we go? Where can we start?

Read and show time to 5 minute intervals

minutes to, minutes past, interval, How many minutes are between each pair of numbers on a clock? How do we know if it a past or to time? Can you show 10 past/to 6?

There are 24 hours in a day and 60 minutes in an hour.

How many minutes are in 1½ hours? How many ½ hours are in 2 hours?

Work out how long an event lasts. (in 5 minute intervals or whole hours)

Start time, end time, duration, In terms of an event (eg a TV pro-gram, walk or lesson)… What is the start and end time? How can we show this on a clock? What is the duration of this?

Compare time using shorter and longer and order times from shortest to longest.

Which is longer -2 minutes or 1 hour? Which is the longest TV program (from a choice of 3)? How can we work out how long each one is?

Example Activities

Make a clock face and label 5 minute intervals.

Play can you guess my time.

My minute hand is on the 3 and my hour hand is just past the 4. What time is it?

Play a game of all about time

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/measures

Design a poster showing how many minutes are in…

1 hour, half an hour, quarter of an hour, three quarters of an hour

Pick some of your favourite TV programmes or activities.

How long do they last for?

What time do they start/finish?

What’s the longest/shortest?

Draw a clock face using chalk. Can you jump round it clockwise? Anti clockwise?

Can you count in steps of 5 as you jump?

Year 3 Example Activities Learning Step Key Vocabulary and Questions

Know how many days in each month and there are 365 in a year.

What is a leap year?

Year, month, leap year, non-leap year, calendar,

What are the significant dates in a year? Which month comes before…./after…? Which month changes in a leap year?

Know there are 24 hours in a day and when noon, midday and midnight are.

Use morning, afternoon, am and pm to describe the time of day.

Noon, midday, midnight, morning, afternoon, am, pm, earlier, later What are we doing at midnight? When does a day start? How many hours are in a school day? Why does a clock show 11 o’clock twice in a day?

Children should be more confident telling the time to 5 minute intervals.

They can read clock faces with Roman Numerals.

Roman numerals What time is it? What time is lunch? How many minutes until then?

Introduce digital time

Know minutes are always “minutes past” never “minutes to”

analogue, digital, am, pm What is the difference between analogue and digital? What does 5.30pm look like on an analogue clock? How do we change analogue to digital time?

Introduce the 24-hour clock

What do we do at 19.00? When is 0.00? Who uses a 24-hour clock? Why?

Calculate durations of events using analogue and digital clocks.

(Use real clocks with moveable hands)

When did __ start and finish? Do we need to count in one minutes or is there a quicker way? If we take a 15 minute break at 10.05, what time will we start work again?

Measure time in seconds

What can we use to measure seconds accurate-ly? What might last ____ seconds? How can we work out how many seconds in ___ minutes?

Create your own calendar that displays the day, date, month, year, season and weather.

You could use an example from here…

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-c-1205-ready-

made-calendar-display-pack

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-n-2546258-

digital-and-analogue-clocks-activity-sheet

Use left over Easter Egg cases to make these...

Time how many seconds it takes you to do 20 star jumps. Challenge: How many minutes is this?

Time how many minutes it takes you to read 5 pages of your book. Challenge: How many seconds is this?

BBC bitesize have a range of videos, activities and games. Start here…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zkfycdm/articles/zcrmqty

Year 4 Learning Step Key Vocabulary and Questions

Read analogue time accurately to minutes.

What time is it? 13 minutes past 4? Show me 26 minutes to 7.

Know there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in a hour, 24 hours in a day, 365 days in a non-leap year etc

Name some activities that might last an hour, a minute, a second… How many minutes in __ hours? How many seconds in __ minutes? What calculation do we do to convert days to weeks/weeks to days etc?

Confidently convert between analogue and digital times in 12 and 24 hours for-mats.

Know digital time needs 4 digits – 09.30 not 9.30.

What time do you go to bed? How would this look on an analogue clock, a digital watch and a 24hr clock? We will go outside at 14.10? How long until then?

Example Activities

Year 5/6

Learning Step Key Vocabulary and Questions

Use timelines, calendars and clocks to confidently convert between units of time.

Can 21 days be written in weeks? What about 25 days? Is 0.75 hours the same as 75 minutes? (No, ¾ hour is 45min as there are 60 mins in 1 hour) When do we use timetables?

Example Activities Explore a range of online timetables. What time do I need to get to Shenfield Station if I want to be at Liverpool Street for 3pm?

Design an evening TV schedule for the family showing channels and programmes. eg – 18.00 – 18.30 BBC News (Could present in Excel)

In an average day, how long do you spend asleep, eating, reading, playing outdoors etc. What would this look like for a week? A year?

How many hours do you spend asleep in a year? Convert this to days.

Plan a journey to Wembley to watch a cup final that starts at 3pm. Which trains do we catch? When do we need to set off? Would driving be a faster option? What about traffic/parking?

Play this game https://nrich.maths.org/10776 - Approaching Midnight

Look for this App on an iPhone home screen.

Whilst covering up the digital time at the top of the home screen ask your child to read the time using the analogue clock as shown .

How many star jumps can you do in 60 seconds ? Use the stopwatch on a phone .

Let your children count down 60 minutes till bedtime in 15 minute intervals.

Make a grid with 24 boxes and stick it on the fridge. Insert a description of an activity you are doing within that hour (eg sleeping at 2 o,clock in the morning )

Play this game by clicking the link https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?

f=matchingpairstimev3

This matching game will help you covert from analogue to digital time.