Learn to Tell Time: Giant Floor Clock

What time is it?  Time to have fun together as we practice the skill of telling the time on an analog clock!  Children understand new concepts better when they have a chance to ‘feel’ the concept with their whole bodies.  The passage of time can be felt in your body but learning how to decode the hands on a clock can be confusing for many children.  Here is a fun way children can practice telling the time.

We used foam circles that we have from a twister game and made numbers out of tape.  You could use construction paper, the backs of cereal boxes, old T-shirts, or whatever you have on hand.  Write the numbers 1-12 and place them in their positions on a clock.  We made  an hour and minute hand using paper towel tubes and cardboard.  Again, search through your recycle bin and find something that inspires the children.  Children who are included in the exciting creation phase of a learning project are more willing to play the educational game once it has been created.  Plus, there are many other skills that can be taught while you gather supplies and make your materials.

Finally, we decided to add our own helper numbers (counting by fives) to aid the learning process at this point.

The children had great fun laying out the clock numbers and moving the hands on the clock.  They took turns setting the clock to a new time for their friend to then ‘tell the time’.  I suggested we jump on the numbers as we count by fives to include movement into the skip counting process.  We also tried lying down and pretending our arms and legs were the hands of the clock.  This gave the children a chance to feel what 3 o’clock looked like on the clock face.

The children enjoyed taking a break from the worksheets and geting their bodies moving while learning a new concept.

It was a fun time!