Hands-on time activities are the way to go when it comes to teaching your child how to read an analog clock.
Another thing I like to do is apply learning to real life situations as much as possible.
When a child is learning time, it helps to attach it to things like 12:00 for lunch, 8:00 for bedtime, etc.
It’s a simple but effective way to begin teaching your child about AM and PM.
Today to give your child an activity that they can use to learn this new skill, I have a cute little tutorial.
It’s a simple watch craft your child can design and then use to practice telling time on as they go about their day.
But that’s not all, there are 7 more fun hands-on time activities to try.
They will get your child moving, thinking, and eventually telling time all day long as they move from meals to playtime to bedtime.
Books For Kids About Telling Time and Clocks
Next, look at some of these hands-on resources for learning about telling time.
Also, include older learners by reading some of these living books about clock and time.
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.
Here are a few suggestions for games and other resources that will have them calling out the time on analog clocks all day long.
7 Time-Telling Fun Hands-On Time Activities
- Check out this rock sundial that will help your child learn small numbers and tell time using the sun to the hour.
- Find out how Teaching Time Made Fun works kids gross motor skills while teaching them time.
- These Telling Time Clock Playdough Mats are a fun way to incorporate sensory learning in a simple lesson.
- Using a basic learning clock you can play Rush Hour Game – How to TEACH Kids How to Tell Time! In a really entertaining way.
- Make use of the free resources in the yard like rocks by creating a Rock Clock and teach kids how to tell time with a creative twist.
- Use up those leftover eggs by creating the Telling Time Match Up game, what a great way to get familiar with matching numbers and clock faces.
- This Easy Telling Time Craft For Kids shows examples of both analog and digital clocks for practice.
Finally, look how to make this simple watch craft.
Simple Watch Craft
For young children practice identifying the numbers on the watch face.
After they are very familiar with them you can move on to telling time to the hour, half hour, quarter hour, in five minute increments, and finally down to the minute.
You will need:
- sturdy cardstock
- A metal brad
- Scissors
- Hook and loop tape
- Small round object to trace
- Laminating machine/sheets
First, to make it easy to read and wear if you want to find a small round object larger than your child’s wrist, I used a little bowl to trace the watch face.
Measure their wrist and trace then cut a strip of paper about 1 ½ to 2” longer and 2” wide.
Measure the space from the center of the watch face to a little shorter than the edges and cut out two arrows, one shorter than the other.
Cut out each piece and let your child color it then write 1-12 on the watch face around the outside.
Place each piece in laminating sheets and seal to make them sturdier.
You don’t have to do this step but the practice watch will last a lot longer
Cut the laminated pieces leaving just a small border.
Poke a hole through the arrows and in the center of the watch face.
Push a brad through the arrows and watch, open into place.
Hot glue the watch face to the center of the “strap”
Now place each side of velcro on either ends of the strap so that it can be put together and pulled apart. (one half goes on the inside uncolored portion, the opposite piece should go on the colored side.)