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Rafe Esquith: Five Tips to Help Children Develop Their Natural Gifts

#2703. telling time to the nearest hour

Mathematics, level: Kindergarten
Posted Mon Sep 30 20:02:06 PDT 2002 by Jill McCaskill (JillSMcas@aol.com).
Arlington Elementary, Jackson,Tennessee USA
Materials Required: index cards, numbers written on cards, hula hoop
Activity Time: 1 hour
Concepts Taught: construction of a clock

Gather the children around a hula hoop. Tell the children that you are going to construct a clock on the floor. Identify the numbers that are on a clock 1-12 only. Start by asking where does the 12 go? One child will place the card with 12 at the top of the inside of the hula hoop. Then continue with the 1. Place all of the numbers through 11. Show the children that the numbers are still in order on the clock. Also point out that they will always be in this order on any clock. Then get out an arrow that represents the hour hand. Explain that it will point to the number that stands for what hour it is. Example if it is pointing to the 3 then the hour is 3. Go around and ask children what number the hour hand is pointing to. Also point out that the hour hand is shorter and it is a shorter word. Then get out the longer hand and tell them that this is the minute hand. Explain that this hand tells how many minutes after the hour it is. However if you are wanting to show 3o'clock the minute hand will be straight up on 12 and the hour hand will be where? After the children respond with 3 continue with another hour. Explain that the minute hand does not change when you are talking about 1:oo 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00
6:00 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 or 12:00. When the clock is completely constructed, compare it to the one on the wall. Then give the children a clock without numbers and let them write the correct number in the boxes on the clock 1 - 12. You also can give them little clocks to find the natching time on their clocks as the one on the floor.