Math Madness Wednesday: Telling Time

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock....we spend our whole lives attached to a clock.  What time is breakfast?  How long is your soccer practice?  When is the party?  This makes it important for kids to learn as a life skill, not just to answer the questions on a test!  But, it can be SO difficult for some students!  Sure, they know how to read the time on a digital clock (or their parents phone, tablet, computer, etc.), but what about analog?  When my kids were young (and still now at ages 10 and 11), I bought analog clocks for their room.  I figured they would be fine with the digital clocks, but I was going to "force" them to practice analog too!  I am glad I did it too because still today, they are one of the few in their classes that can tell time quickly just by glancing at the clock (and, they know their Roman Numerals too, but that is a whole different post!).  Obviously, we can't control what kind of clocks our students have though.  So, that brings us to teaching all about time.    

As I do with most units I teach, I like to start with books.  They can help the kids make great connections and answer the question, "Why do I need to learn that?"  They also can help me kill 2 birds with 1 stone!  I can connect my Literacy lesson to my math lesson and have more time in my day by doing so.  Here are a few books that I love to read when teaching Telling Time.

This is a great introduction book for all kinds of telling time!  I like how it breaks up time into little chunks or shrimps (seconds, minutes, and hours) and big chunks or humungus chunks (days, weeks, months, etc.).

Eric Carle's classic telling time book is loved by all!  Kids can follow along by moving the hands on a clock while you are reading the story to them!  Check out my FREE foldable book that is based off of this story!

This book is a good one for explaining why a clock might tell a different time (it takes the main character a minute to get to his other clock and he doesn't know which clock is correct).  Plus, it is funny!

This is probably my favorite book!  It is a good read aloud in and of itself, but it is a staple in my telling time unit!  After reading it all the way through once, we go back through the book with our own clocks and move the hands to show how long it takes the crazy pigs to get ready or go get a snack or drive to the beach.  I really like how there is a summary at the end of the book!

And, of course, after reading books, I like to play games to practice telling time!  So, here are a couple of activities you can use with your classroom!  

Of course, I had to make a WILD game to go with this week's topic!  This version is for telling time to the hour and half hour.  It is on sale for only $1.50 right now!  

I also made a set of task cards that can be used as a SCOOT game or a center.  It is differentiated and includes versions for telling time to the hour, half hour, and quarter hour.  

Don't forget about the GREAT deal you can get over at EDUCENTS!  One of my WILD games and one of my lapbooks is included, which by themselves would cost about the same as the entire bundle!  You can get 10 FANTASTIC products for only $10.99!  And, to sweeten the deal a little more, if you buy one of these packs, send me a copy of your receipt and you can choose ANY item from my store for FREE!  So, you would get a total of 11 products for under $1 a piece!  That is a steal!  Don't have an account at Educents yet?  That is okay!  Head over HERE to sign up for FREE (I will get a referral credit too) and get ready to start saving!   

And, with that, I believe it is TIME for me to run!  Have a great week!  :)

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