This hands-on time activity is a creative and engaging way for kids of all ages to learn about telling time.
It’s also a great way to encourage their creativity and fine motor skills.
Let kids take the initiative to be part of the learning process right from the start.
For example, they can paint, cut and write on their own learning manipulative.
This gives them ownership in it and helps them to better retain the lessons they learn.
Whether it is for preschool, kindergarten, or early elementary, this clock will work to teach time to the hour, minute, quarter, and half hours.
First, look at some of these fun books and manipulatives.
Books About Telling Time for Kids
I love to use living books when I can find them, then I like to add games or reference books when we study a topic like this.
9 Time Telling Books for Kids Who Love to Read and Be Read To
Add some of these resources to your day for telling time.Your kids will love hands-on games and ideas.
Describes the weight clock and the spring clock and how they work.
Educational Details: The clock face has large red numbers to match the hour hand, small blue numbers to match the minute hand, and a segmented color disk to help kids visualize "quarter
past" and "half past
Why do some plants blossom only during the day? How do certain birds know when and where to migrate? Why are some people "early birds" and others "night owls"? In this easy-to-read volume, Seymour Simon examines the inner biological clocks of people, animals, and plants and explains what makes them tick.
TIMES UP: Learn to tell time in this fast paced, fun and cooperative game. The goal of this Perfect Timing card game is to get the clock to the right place just in time.
Jumbo 12-sided dice/manipulative to reinforce basic time-telling skills. Contains 2 dice: (1) yellow with blue numbers 1-12 to designate hours. (1) yellow with red numbers: 00 -: 55 to designate minutes.
The hands of all thirteen clocks stand still in the gloomy castle on a lonely hill where a wicked Duke lives with his niece, the beautiful Princess Saralinda. The Duke fancies he has frozen time, for he is afraid that one day a Prince may come and win away the hand of the Princess—the only warm hand in the castle. To thwart that fate, he sets impossible tasks for Saralinda’s suitors. But when the bold Prince Zorn of Zorna arrives, disguised as a wandering minstrel, and helped by the enigmatic Golux, the cold Duke may at last have met his match.
Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo's undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.
Man has always found a great need for measuring time. This book begins with very early time-keeping, and goes through water-clocks, sundials and early clocks to modern ones. At the end is the Atomichron, which may be the accurate time-keeper that will go with rockets into space.Early mechanical clocks were worked by heavy weights, and had only an hour hand, as seen in the old clockmaker's shop used on page 4. At that time people did not feel the need to know the exact time, nor had they made a clock accurate enough to tell it. In this age of science, time must be measured exactly. The Atomichron should lose only one second in three thousand years.
- Unlock the joy of learning time with our practical and functional Montessori toys for babies. Enhance kids' clock learning to tell time with our toy clock.
Then look at some of these teaching tips about telling time.
Tips for Teaching Telling Time
To teach young children to tell time you want to…
Start with the basics- Explain the concepts of hours, minutes, and seconds.
You can use a clock with movable hands to demonstrate how they work like our paper plate clock activity.
Introduce the clock face– Show your child how to find the numbers 1-12 on the clock face.
And explain that each number represents an hour.
Teach your child to tell the hour- Start by pointing to the hour hand and asking your child what number it is pointing to.
Then, say the time out loud, for example, “It is 1 o’clock.”
Move on to minutes- Once your child understands how to tell the hour, you can start teaching them about minutes.
Explain that there are 60 minutes in an hour and that the minute hand moves around the clock face once every hour.
Hands on time activities in particular are the best way for kids to learn to tell time so besides the cool paper plate clock I have to show you today I have seven more hands on time activities.
More Hands-on Time Activities
You have to check out these interactive Free Printable Time Telling Puzzles, be sure to laminate them to make them last.
Play this fun Rush Hour Game – How to TEACH Kids How to Tell Time! and your kids won’t even realize they are learning.
Here you will find 7 Time-Telling Fun Hands-On Time Activities and a Simple Watch Craft that your preschooler can wear all day as they learn.
Telling Time Activity With Free Playdough Mats
For an activity that helps teach time and also the history of how early peoples kept time you can learn how to Make A Rock Sundial and 20 other fun activities to boot!
Time to Match ‘Em Up is a great matching activity using something that I am pretty sure most of us already have in our home.
How to Make a Paper Plate Clock
Make it colorful and child made, and it will be instantly more interesting to your little learner
You will need:
- Paper plate
- brad/paper fastener
- Cardstock
- markers
- Craft paint
- paintbrush
First, flip the plate upside down and have your child paint it whatever color or colors that they like.
Set the plate aside and let it dry completely.
While you are waiting, use cardstock to cut out two hands.
Cut one slightly shorter than the distance from the center of the plate to the numbers and the other about 1” shorter.
Make holes at one end of the clock hands and push the brad through.
When the plate is dry use a marker to draw on your numbers one through 1-12.
Then use a different color to mark lines to be the minutes in between.
Poke a hole in the center with scissors or a sharp knife and push the brad with the hands through the center of the plate and open the prongs.
Tips:
For younger children, start with a simpler clock face using only the numbers 12, 3, 6, and 9.
To make the activity more challenging, have kids create a clock face with both analog and digital time.
Let each child paint different colored paper plates to personalize their clocks.
Encourage kids to create their own clock designs and decorations, fostering their creativity and imagination.
If your child is old enough to write, pencil the numbers in lightly and let them write over the pencil with a marker to practice writing and help them better retain where the numbers go.
To Play:
Have your child hold the paper plate clock in front of them.
Tell them what time it is, and have them move the string so that the brad points to the correct time.
Move the hands yourself and ask them to give the time.
Call out a time of day and have your child move the hands to match.
Encourage them to practice telling time with their paper plate clock throughout the day.
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