A clock kids can turn
This clock opens at the current time. Drag the long hand with a finger or the mouse and the short hand follows, exactly as on a real clock: when the minute hand goes all the way around, the hour hand moves on to the next number. You can also grab the short hand to jump an hour at a time, or tap anywhere on the face to send the closest hand there. Next to the clock, the time appears in numbers (3:15) and in words (quarter past three), so a child links the three ways of saying the same thing.
The small numbers around the face (05, 10, 15…) show the minutes. Hide them with the Minutes button once your child counts by fives without help. Now brings the clock back to the current time. On a classroom screen or an interactive whiteboard, use full screen: the clock grows to fill the board.
Two games, five levels
Set the clock asks for a time (“Set the clock to 3:15”). The child moves the hands, then presses Check. If it is wrong, the clock says which time it shows, and the child can try again or press Show me. What time is it? shows a time on the clock and three answers, written in numbers and in words. The wrong answers are the classic mistakes: hands swapped, the hour next door, quarter past mixed up with quarter to.
The level sets which times come up: o’clock only, half hours, quarter hours, five minutes, or to the minute. In Set the clock, the hands snap to the level’s step, so a six-year-old working on half hours is not frustrated by stray minutes. The score counts first tries only, which keeps it honest.
How to teach telling time, step by step
- O’clock first. Show that the short hand gives the hour and that the long hand on 12 means “o’clock”. Play What time is it? at the o’clock level.
- Half past. The long hand on 6 means half past. Point out that the short hand now sits halfway between two numbers: at half past three, it is between 3 and 4.
- Quarter past and quarter to. Long hand on 3: quarter past. Long hand on 9: quarter to, and the hour is the next one. Quarter to four is 3:45.
- Count by fives. Each number on the face is worth five minutes for the long hand. Count around together: 5, 10, 15, 20… The minutes ring helps at first.
- To the minute. Count the small marks after the last five: 3:23 is 20 plus 3.
- Morning and afternoon. The clock face goes around twice a day. Talk about a.m. and p.m. with real moments: breakfast at 7:30 a.m., dinner at 6:30 p.m.
| Long hand on | Minutes | How we say it at 3 o’clock |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | :00 | three o’clock |
| 1 | :05 | five past three |
| 2 | :10 | ten past three |
| 3 | :15 | quarter past three |
| 4 | :20 | twenty past three |
| 5 | :25 | twenty-five past three |
| 6 | :30 | half past three |
| 7 | :35 | twenty-five to four |
| 8 | :40 | twenty to four |
| 9 | :45 | quarter to four |
| 10 | :50 | ten to four |
| 11 | :55 | five to four |
Many Americans also read the digits directly: “three fifteen”, “three forty-five”. Both are right; the clock’s words use the “past” and “to” forms because they match what the hands show.
At what age do kids learn to tell time?
In the United States, the Common Core math standards spread it over three grades. In first grade (standard 1.MD.B.3), children “tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks”. In second grade (2.MD.C.7), they read the time “to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m.”. In third grade (3.MD.A.1), they tell time to the nearest minute and work out time intervals in minutes. So most children learn between about 6 and 9, and it is normal for a child to read o’clock long before quarter to.
The best practice is short and frequent: one or two minutes of the game at breakfast, a look at the kitchen clock before leaving for school, “we leave when the long hand is on 6”. A visual timer also helps young children feel how long five minutes really is.
Common mistakes, and how to fix them
- Mixing up the hands. Remind them: short hand, short word, hour. Long hand, longer word, minutes. In the game, drag only the long hand at first.
- Reading the next hour too early. At 3:50 the short hand is almost on 4, and many children say “4:50”. The hour is the number the short hand has just passed.
- Quarter to. “Quarter to four” is before four o’clock, so it reads 3:45. Turn the clock slowly from 3:30 to 4:00 and say each step.
- Counting minutes from the wrong place. Minutes always start at 12. Leave the minutes ring on until counting by fives is automatic.
Printable telling time worksheets
Here is a new worksheet every time you press New: six clocks to read, six clocks to draw the hands on, at the level chosen in the tool above. The answers for the first six are printed in small type at the bottom. Press Print: only the worksheet is printed, with room for a name and a date.
More time tools for kids
Once the clock is clear, try the full screen clock in Watch style to read a real watch face, the stopwatch to time a race in the garden, or the Pomodoro timer for homework in short rounds. Older children can play with the calendar to learn days and months.