Reading the hour on a clock: 1.25

Teaching Strategies

These activities are the first in the ‘learning to measure’ phase. An important strategy for teaching the use of any instrument is to highlight the most important features. In this case, hours are the most important feature of a clock and so the simplified ‘clocks’ used in these activities focus on the hours. Students will become aware that the minute hand points directly up (to 12) on the hour, but the focus of these activities is to understand what the hour hand does.

Much of the teaching of reading a clock will occur incidentally throughout the day as the teacher focuses students’ attention on the clock (e.g. all looking at the classroom clock to see that it is nearly time for morning play).

Activity 1: Draw a clock face is a useful diagnostic task that can be used on multiple occasions.
Activity 2: One handed clock uses a clock face with only one hand to focus attention on the hour.
Activity 3: Shoebox clock uses only the hour display on a model of a digital clock.
Activity 4: Linking clocks makes explicit connections between analogue and digital clocks.

 

Activity 1: Draw a clock face

Students are asked to draw an analogue clock face. As Illustration 1 above shows, this is a useful diagnostic task as it will reveal which features of the clock face students do and do not appreciate.

• Look for revealing features such as which numbers are used and where they are placed (around the circumference, in order, equally spread, which direction, etc.).
• If the clock is adequately drawn:
  • Ask students to draw hands on their clock and to say what time their clock is showing.
  • Discuss what they often do at the two times of the day that the clock shows (i.e. 7 o’clock in the morning and in the evening).

 

Activity 2: One handed clock

Students may not appreciate that the hour hand is the most important hand on an analogue clock, because it is smaller than the minute hand. We are able to approximate the time without the minute hand. The minute hand adds extra precision.

This is a photo of an old clock on the wall of St Vitus’ cathedral in Prague. It was made with only one hand, yet it shows the time reasonably well. We can tell that this photo was taken just before 4 o’clock.

Use the classroom clock to highlight to students that the hour hand moves slowly between numerals over the course of an hour.

In this activity, students make a ‘one handed’ clock just like the St Vitus’ clock. Note: The minute hand only provides additional accuracy which is not needed at this stage. The focus is clearly on the hour and using time language appropriate for students at this level.

Provide students with a copy of a clock printed on card (see resource sheet Clock Face (PDF - 19Kb)). Students need to cut out the hour hand (only) and use a split pin to attach to the centre of the clock-face, as in the pictures below. Students follow the teacher’s directions with their own clocks. These directions emphasise the correct direction of turn (only clockwise and never anti-clockwise) and highlight the transition from 12 to 1.

Step 1: Establishing o’clock times

Move your hour hand so that it points to the number 3.
This shows 3 o’clock.

Move your hour hand so that it points to the number 4.
This shows 4 o’clock.

Move your hour hand so that it points to the number 5.
This shows 5 o’clock.

Show me 6 o’clock. Show me 7 o’clock. Show me 12 o’clock.
What do you think will happen now? (If the hour hand keeps turning the same way, it will show 1 o’clock).

 

Step 2: Establishing between o’clock times

Position the hour hand of your clock between 9 and 10. What time would this be?

Acceptable answers for the position shown in the image include: after 9 o’clock and before 10 o’clock, or between 9 o’clock and 10 o’clock, or nearly 10 o’clock. Some students might suggest ‘half past 9’, and the teacher could ask them to adjust the hour hand so that it was more exactly half way between 9 and 10 so that the clock showed ‘half past 9’ more precisely. This links the ‘half past’ phrase with the half way position of the hour hand. However, the emphasis in this activity is on describing all positions of the hour hand, not just the exact half-way point.

Students then follow directions to show various times on their own clocks.

Show me a time between 3 o’clock and 4 o’clock.
Show me a time that is just before 3 o’clock.
Show me a time that is just after 3 o’clock.
Show me a time that is exactly half way between 2 and 3 o’clock? This is called half past 2.

Activity 3: Shoebox clock

In this activity students use a model of a digital clock with the hour display showing and the minute display covered. Note: as the hour display on a digital clock is read first (following the convention of reading from left to right), the focus is automatically on the hour, which is not the case for an analogue clock. Students are likely to have encountered many digital clocks at home, on clock radios, microwave displays, video or DVD recorders. Tell the students that they will be using a digital clock with only the hours visible. While the clock is not fully visible, it is still useful.

Make a ‘shoebox clock’ as in the picture below. For the hour display, a strip of paper marked 1 to 12 is threaded through the box and then joined at the ends to make a loop. For this level, only the hour display is required. (Print numbers on a strip from the resource sheet: Shoe Box Numbers (Word - 51Kb))

 

 

Shoebox digital clock (no minutes)

 

 

 

 

Shoebox digital clock (with minutes)

 

 

Roll the loop in the shoebox clock so that 10 is in the hour display and show the students.
Ask: Can we tell what time it is from our shoebox clock?
Expect some students to say 10 o’clock.
Ask: Can we tell if it is exactly 10 o’clock? No, it might be exactly 10 o’clock or it might be after 10 o’clock. We do know it is before 11 o’clock.

Roll the loop to 11, 12, 1, 2 etc (always going forwards) and ask similar questions.

Activity 4: Linking clocks

Throughout the day, ask the students to look at the (analogue) classroom clock to read the hour information and then mimic this on their own one handed clock. In addition, either cover the minute display of a (real) digital clock or make a shoebox clock without a minute display.

Ask questions such as the following:
About what time does the classroom clock show?
Make this on your one handed clock.
What would be showing on our shoebox clock?
What is the hour display on our digital clock?

The following two examples illustrate that the hour hand has moved slightly and that the hour display in the digital clock has not. It is for this reason that the one handed analogue clock is more useful, to give approximate times than the digital clock without minutes. With the analogue clock, we can tell if it is closer to 10 o’clock or 11 o’clock. At this level, students will not read the minutes.

Example 1: Quarter past 10
A bit after 10 o’clock	This is my one handed clock that shows a bit after 10 o’clock.	This is the digital clock that shows after 10 o’clock

 

Example 2: Quarter to 11
A bit before 11 o’clock	This is my one handed clock that shows a bit before 11 o’clock.	This is the digital clock that shows before 11 o’clock

 

Indicator of Progress

For Reading the Hour on a Clock indicator of progress, see: Part 1