One of the areas that I’ve always enjoyed teaching is telling time. Students require lots of repeated practice on this skill in a variety of ways. In my classroom, I try to teach with the CRA method in mind. C for Concrete. R for Representational and A for Abstract.
In first grade, I did a lot of hands practice with Judy Clocks and used lots of visuals to remind my students of the important vocabulary. Making sure that they know the difference between the hands is HUGE. Once they have that mastered, then we can move from the hands on practice to writing the times as well.
We always start with mastery of time to the hour and then move to time to the half hour. Students can represent time by drawing hands on a clock. Again, focusing on the proper position of the hands, particularly when showing time to the half hour. Students who have shown mastery of telling and writing time are ready to start reading some short story problems with support. This is what I do for the abstract. Giving students lots of different opportunities to practice in many different ways helps me to create time for small groups that require remediation or enrichment.
The unit of study I created for my firsties has the opportunity for students to represent that they can tell time to the nearest hour and half hour.
It also features some first grade friendly story problems as well! There are seven different center type activities and two different teaching powerpoints. There are recording sheets to go with the activities as well.
In the digital clock match, students read a digital clock and create an analog clock to match. This offers students the opportunity to show that they can tell time on both types of clock.
I’ve included six different bingo boards for you to use with your learners once they are fluent in telling time to the nearest hour and half hour.
One of my students favorite activities is roll and cover. This is a great activity to do in small group to help students practice reading times on an analog clock. It’s also great if you have a parent volunteer or support person in the room. It is easy to put together and easy to use with kids!
My students love board games and this one is great for reading time! There’s an answer key included, so students can self check if they are at that point in the year…or you can work with them in a small group and use the key to check them!
These activities fit in a box that is easy to store in my closet! When I’m ready to use them, I just pull them out and place them in center buckets or on desk tops, or with my small group support person. Super easy!
The visual aids are a also a great way to help students recall important vocabulary from the lessons in the powerpoints…and in other additional lessons you put together for your own kidlets.
There are a few other activities in the unit…a fun puzzle match for reading times in different ways, and ‘I have, who has’ game, and even a fun craft that ties in with the book ‘The Grouchy Ladybug’! You won’t want to miss this set for your learners!
If you are looking for this activity, you can find it here on my blog by clicking HERE.
If you are looking for other resources related to math, click HERE
