How to Teach the Clock to Kids
Preparing students to function independently involves teaching them life skills. Incorporating this knowledge into elementary education ensures that students have ample practice before reaching adulthood. One important lesson is how to tell time, as being punctual can help with organization and responsibility. Use a variety of hands-on tasks to teach the clock to kids.
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Instructions
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Explain the importance of learning to tell time. Teach kids that clocks help people start and end activities in an orderly manner. Combat objections to learning about "old-fashioned" clocks, as kids need to learn how to tell time with both analog and digital clocks.
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Identify the components. Explain that the hour hand or "little" hand lets us know the correct hour, while the minute hand or "big" hand lets us know the correct minute. Relay that tick marks or corresponding numbers guide us to the time quicker. Teach children that digital clocks display time using only numbers.
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Teach kids that clocks follow one continuous path. Demonstrate this by tracing the path of a large clock with your fingers. Point out how the numbers increase as time gets closer to completing one rotation. Instruct kids to imitate clock hands by using their fingers to trace the correct movement in the air. Turn this into a game by asking kids to make the circles larger and smaller, or faster and slower.
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Ensure that kids connect the value of the numbers representing the minutes on the clock. Teaching kids to count by fives can help them better understand the clock. For example, although the minute hand is pointing to 3, it represents 15 minutes past the hour.
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Ask kids to adjust different clocks. Use both analog and digital clocks, as setting each requires a different focus. Ensure kids remember to indicate whether it's a.m. or p.m. when setting a digital clock.
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Tips & Warnings
Quizzing kids with worksheets and calling on them to tell the correct time can sharpen their skills.
Discussing the difference between day and night can help kids understand the difference between midnight and noon.
