Any tips for teaching the time?

[charliecat]

DD is struggling for the first time at school trying to learn the time. Too much info to take in at once I think. Any tips to help her? TIA

Play what's the time Mr.Wolf with one of those teaching clocks you can get or just a kitchen clock that you can change the time on quickly.

Make her a clock, with photos of you doing routine daily things alongside the numbers, hang it in most used room of house kitchen? dining room?

Then discuss during the day.

EG 7am - photo of dd eating breakfast. so as you sit down to eat, you ask dd what the time is (she knows cos pic tells her) then you talk about how the hands show the time as well as the pic.
8.20 - time to put shoes and coat on for school (do as above)

and so on.

Then your making a fun activity out of it and gradually help her to learn. She can enjoy cutting and sticking the photos also. Later on you could encourage her to make clocks for other family members/pets/fave characters etc.

I really struggled with telling the time - I was about 8 or 9 before I got the hang of it.
What did it for me was that we made a pretend clock at school out of cardboard with the hands stuck on with one of those wing-back-paper-fastener things. One half was painted red (the past half) and the other half yellow (the to half). It had all the usual numbers round the outside but also with 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 round the past side, and the same back up again round the to side. Then we moved the hands round to whatever time the teacher said it was.
Sorry if this is a bit garbled, have had glasses of wine, but it really helped me. Even now I picture that toy clock when someone asks me what time it is.

Thanks for your advice...getting there slowly!

after doing what fran says, then get pizza or cake and make a big deal of doing halves and quarters

then do colouring of clock faces,,,red for past and blue for to....

dont move on to mins to until she has a firm graspp on mins past

also helpful - point at the numers on the clock and count in 5s

Time is blimming hard because you can say a number of things to mean the same thing, i.e. 9:45, 45 minutes past 9, quarter to 10, 15 minutes to 10. Then there is the whole business about past and to, so the idea about the coloured sides helps. And then there is the problem of analogue and digital clocks!

I can be more ueful to use a geared or normal clock (that's one where the hour hand moves automaically) to get that postiotion right.

Focus on o'clock, then half past, quarter past etc, then minutes past e.g. 5, 10, 20, 25 and then quarter to, ten to etc. I would say in my experience, most children master time telling much towards the end of primary, however all children seem pretty quick to learn when it's playtime/lunchtime/hometime!

It seems we have mastered half past, quarter past quarter to, oclock and shes got the count in 5 things too...now just need to get the lingo to go with it...twenty past twenty to etc.. which is the hardest bit as youve got to look at nuber 4 and translate it into twenty past...blooming confusing even when you do know...
Shes in year two and they have been doing sums with the time...
like whats half an hour before 8.00....etc...poor thing!
Thanks again...there are also good things on bbc dynamo too ive found for anyone else needed the help.

do the colouring of sides...if the big hand is in the red side it is past the hour etc