Telling Time

Why should I learn to read a clock? When we can read a clock, we can find out when it is time to do something, like meet a friend at the park or watch a favorite show.

This looks pretty hard, are you sure I can do this? Sure you can! It may take some practice, but by learning the basics you’ll be on your way in no time!

Types of Clocks There are two different type of clocks, digital and analog. Can you guess which is analog and which is digital?

This is a digital clock. Instead of pointing to the numbers with hands, the numbers are displayed electronically.

This is an analog clock. Today, we will be learning how to read an analog clock.

The body of the clock is called the face. face

The clock contains 12 numbers. We can read the time as one o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock…you get the picture!

The hands point to the numbers. hand

This hand is called the hour hand. The hour hand is the shortest hand. You can remember this by remembering that “hour” is a short word.

The hour hand will circle the entire clock two times each day because there are 24 hours in one day.

Hours between 12:00 midnight and 12:00 noon are read as A.M. For example, you wake up in the morning at 6:00 AM

Any hour between 12:00 noon and 12 midnight is read as P.M. You eat dinner with your family at 6:00 P.M.

This is the minute hand. It tells us the minute of the hour. The minute hand is longer than the hour hand. Remember that “minute” is a long word. Remember, there are 60 minutes in on hour.

This is the second hand. It tells us how many seconds have passed in the minute. Remember, there are 60 seconds in one minute.

To read the hour, look at the hour hand. The hour hand is beside the 5, so it is five o’clock.

To find the minute, look at the number the minute hand is beside. We can then skip count to find the time.

Remember: 1=5 minutes after the hour 2=10 minutes after the hour 3=15 minutes after the hour 4=20 minutes after the hour 5=25 minutes after the hour 6=30 minutes after the hour 7=35 minutes after the hour 8=40 minutes after the hour 9=45 minutes after the hour 10=50 minutes after the hour 11=55 minutes after the hour 12=60 or 1 hour

Let’s put it all together! First, look at the hour hand. What hour is it? Next, look at the minute hand. What minute of the hour is it? Answer: 10 o’clock. The hour hand is by the 10. Answer: 10 after 10. We can skip count by fives. 1=5 minutes after. 2 = 10 minutes after.

Wow! This was really fun! I feel so much better about telling time! All it takes is a little practice. Well, that’s all the time we have for today. Next time we can practice telling time to the nearest minute.