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Maths

Telling the Time to Five Minutes

Overview

Using demonstration clocks and partner activities, students practise moving around the clock face in five-minute steps and reading times accurately.

Learning Objective
Students read analogue clock times to the nearest five minutes and record them in digital format (e.g. 3:25).

Resources needed

  • Demonstration clock (teacher)
  • Mini analogue clocks per pair (or clock face printout with moveable hands)
  • Mini whiteboards

Lesson stages

0 / 7 done
  1. 1 Quick fire: show o'clock and half past times on the demo clock. Students call out the time. 'We already know these — today we go further.'
  2. 2 Point around the clock face: 'Each number represents 5 minutes past.' Count aloud together: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30... all the way to 60 (back to 12). Students count in 5s while you point to each number.
  3. 3 Set clock to 2:20. 'The short hand tells me the hour — it is just past 2. The long hand points to 4 — that is 4 fives — 20 minutes past 2. So this is 2:20.' Repeat with 4:35, 7:05.
  4. 4 Partner A sets a time on their mini clock; partner B reads it aloud and writes it in digital format. Swap after 5 times. Teacher circulates and checks.
  5. 5 Revisit 'quarter past' and 'quarter to' language. Show 3:15 and 3:45. 'We can say three fifteen OR quarter past three. We can say three forty-five OR quarter to four.'
  6. 6 Give times in words ('twenty-five to six') and students set the clock. Note: 'to' times require counting backwards — how many minutes before the next hour?
  7. 7 Show three clock times. Students write the digital time for each and mark the one that shows 'quarter to' something.

Tap a step to mark it as done.

Variations

  • Extend to drawing hands on blank clock faces for given times
  • Introduce 24-hour clock for extension
  • Connect to daily routine: set clock to school start/lunch/home time
More information

Display the sentence frame: 'The time is ___ o'clock / ___ minutes past ___ / quarter past ___.' Practise saying times aloud before writing.

Provide a clock with the five-minute intervals labelled (5, 10, 15... written in small print around the face). Focus only on 'past' times for those needing support.

Can students identify the hour hand correctly? Do they count in 5s fluently around the face? Can they convert between word-form and digital-form times?

Draw clock faces on mini whiteboards. Students use a finger to point to the hands rather than using physical clocks.

Students often confuse the hour and minute hands or read the minute hand as the hour. Reinforce: 'The short hand is the hour hand — it's small like the word 'hour'.'

Activity details
Primary Medium 30 minutes 10 minutes prep Pairs, Small Group Indoor
Topics
Time Clocks Minutes Reading The Clock