Telling Time

Since Yaseen (4.4years) has been showing interest in time, I thought I'd make him a clock. Our home clock has Roman numerals, so I made a battery operated clock so he can actually understand how long seconds and minutes are. 

My aim is to introduce Yaseen to the clock and teach him how to tell time. I will extend this activity later on and teach him the definitions of a.m, p.m, past, present, quarter to/past etc.  

I've listed below a few ways we use this. But first, this is how I made ours. 

What you need:

Cardboard
Box Board Knife
Marker
Clocks Hands or Paper Fastener
Circle Object to Trace (optional)

How to make:

1. Cut the clock face. Ours is 30cms.




2.  Trace a 4cm disc and cut them out. These will become your number discs. I cut an extra 12 circles to write Arabic numbers too.   I also lightly marked the seconds, numbers and words - o'clock and half past. 





3.  Use a marker to write numbers and words. If using battery operated clock hands, poke a hole in the middle and attach. If using a paper fastener, cut hands from cardboard (or paper if board is too thick)  and hold together with the paper fastener. 






Your clock should look like this:

 

I'll be starting Yaseen off with telling the time in English. I've placed this activity on Yaseen's shelf like this. It's more appealing this way too!

Introducing The Clock

First, we need to understand the anatomy of the clock. Here I explained the terms with objects. 

Face: The part of the clock that's marked with units of time. 

The seconds hand: The thinnest and fastest hand that indicates seconds. Each time it moves is 1 second. 

The minute hand: The long hand that indicates how many minutes have passed in an hour. 

The hour hand: The short hand that points to the hour. The twelve numbers on the clock represent the hour. 

Once he familiarised himself with this he moved on to the next activity. 

Telling Time

One thing I love about this clock is that it helps parents identify what numbers the child needs help with.  Yaseen was counting each second as he placed the number discs in order.  


I first explained to Yaseen the at the 12 numbers on the clock represent the hour. The hour hand rotates around the clock twice. The first time it rotates from 12-12 o'clock is A.M. (morning time - I explained what he does during this time, wake up, eat breakfast, self care etc. ). The second time it rotates from 1-12 o'clock is P.M. (afternoon, evening, and night hours - I linked this example to the rest of our daily prayers, special activities and sleep). The hands rotate in a clockwise direction.

Using our maths beads, I explained that there are 60 seconds in 1 minute. We counted each tick and markings on the clock face. When the seconds hand goes around the clock once, it's 1 minute.  We stayed on this for a while, then moved on to the next.

We continued with 60 minutes in 1 hour. We started at number 12 and counted the marks around the clock which also represent the minute, (this is a great way to introduce your child to the 5 minute interval of a minute). Once the minute hands moves 60 times, a new hour begins. When the minute hand points to 12, and the hour hand points to any of the 12 numbers, it becomes 'xx o'clock'.

Here is an activity where I've written time on cards. The objective was for Yaseen to understand the hour. 





Then Yaseen wrote his own time and marked it on the clock face. 





Once he became familiar and confident with the o'clock, we moved on to the half past or  :30 time. 
We are currently working on this at the moment. 





He did however attempt the Arabic version of his clock. 





After watching him set the above number discs, I took out his felt numbers to assist him. 






I'll be updating this blog post  with new activities as we continue to learn about time.

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