Last Updated on August 6, 2024 by Editorial Team
Time-telling is a significant skill that everyone must be aware of. Understanding time is necessary to organize daily-life activities, whether for personal or professional use. It is hard to allocate time to daily activities without knowing telling time, resulting in a haphazard schedule.
Time-telling can be taught to children as young as 4 -5 years. Young children are often curious, and introducing the concept of time that is highly interesting can be a fun activity for them.
In this article, we have introduced an elaborative time-telling lesson plan for young children to help them get acquainted with the basics of time. Educators can use the lesson plan to deliver the time-telling lesson to their students effectively.
Before moving to the time-telling lesson, let’s see some benefits of time-telling in real life.
Importance of time-telling in real-life
Teaching young children the art of telling time is indeed a crucial skill. Some benefits of time-telling are-
- Teaches punctuality: Helping children understand the concept of time helps them understand the value and responsibilities associated with time. It will help the children learn to be on time for daily activities, such as school or bedtime.
- Time Management: Time management is another aspect that children get an idea of by learning time-telling. It helps them understand how much time to devote to a specific activity and what activity should be scheduled at what time.
- Helps to stay organized and productive: Another benefit of teaching children time-telling is helping them get the hang of their daily life activities and stay organized in them. Time-telling will help the developing kids understand what school time is, when playtime is, when one has to get ready for bed, and so on.
- Teaches discipline: Positive life skills, such as discipline, are cultivated from a very young age. The art of time-telling helps children understand the significance of discipline and how effective time management can help to lead a positive and disciplined life.
- Improved cognition: Time-telling is among the complex mathematical concepts that require intellectual stimulation, resulting in improved cognition in developing children.
- Improved social and communication skills: Time-telling helps children be a part of social groups and effectively communicate among the social groups. For instance, in music classes, it is important to have a concrete idea of when to start the music and for how long.
Time-telling lesson plan
Considering the above benefits, we have curated a time-telling lesson plan for young children to help them understand the vocabulary related to time and how to tell the time.
The lesson plan requires some material, and it can easily be implemented in the classroom. The material involves:
- Analog Clock: Analog clocks or watches have two hands, that is, the hour hand and minute hand, to indicate the time.
- Digital Clock: Digital clock uses an advanced widget that represents the time numerically on a LED display.
Additionally, the lesson plan has been designed to creatively engage the children in learning time-telling through various fun activities. The activities involve-
Activity 1: Time of the daily life activities
The activity involves the teacher presenting some daily-life activities to the children, such as lunch, brushing teeth, dinner, etc., and children have to identify at what time (Morning, Afternoon, Evening, or Night) those activities has to be done.
Activity 2: Telling time to the hour
The activity involves an analog clock with a certain time represented on it. Against the analog clock, two digital clocks are represented, one with the same time as the analog clock and another with a different time. Children must identify which digital clock represents the same time as the analog clock.
Activity 3: Telling Time
The activity involves various analog clocks where each clock represents a certain time. Children have to tell the time shown in each clock.
Printable Time-Telling Practice Worksheets
After completing the comprehensive Time-Telling learning session, it’s now time to put your skills into practice. Attached below are two sets of worksheets. The first set comprises over 20 worksheets featuring various clock faces to help you practice reading and identifying the correct time. The second set includes 5 different types of worksheets designed to provide a thorough practice session for students, covering a range of time-telling exercises.
Let your kids practice diligently with these worksheets to reinforce their understanding of telling time and to enhance their proficiency in this essential skill. Consistent practice will strengthen their ability to read clocks accurately and confidently in various contexts, preparing them well for real-world applications where time-telling skills are crucial.
Prompts that can help teachers teach time-telling to children
Teaching time-telling is challenging at times. To make the process of learning time easy for children, educators can use the mentioned prompts.
1. Asking about the favorite daily life activities
Teachers can ask children about their favorite daily activities, such as their favorite cartoon, snack time, playtime, etc., and can encourage children to identify when they engage in those activities.
2. Model of clock
Educators can encourage children to make a clock model out of waste material or make a clock using a plate and highlight time using the hour and minute hand. Children can experiment with different times on the model and better understand the concept.
3. Flashcards
Educators can provide students with flashcards with different analog clocks to help them understand the vocabulary of time and the concept related to the hour and minute hand.
4. Schedulers
Teachers can provide a simplified scheduler of different activities to the students. Each activity has to be performed at a certain time. Teachers can encourage children to identify the time and what activity to conduct according to the scheduler.
5. Drawing clocks
Educators can give children time and ask them to draw a clock representing that time. Teachers can also encourage drawing minutes or seconds. It will help children understand the hours, minutes, and seconds.
6. Manipulatives
Physical or virtual manipulatives are attractive and interactive tools to teach young minds the challenging concept of time. Time-telling manipulatives can reinforce the process of learning the basics of time and provide an opportunity to practice the concept interestingly regularly.
7. Online time-telling games
Various online time-telling games are available on the internet that are easy and free to use, attractive, and highly reliable for teaching children the basics, advanced concepts, and vocabulary of the time.
Tips for effectively teaching time-telling to the children
Some tips that can help teachers effectively teach time-telling to students are-
1. Maintain a hierarchy
Introduce the different concepts and vocabulary of time in a systematic order. For instance, introduce an hour, then a half-hour, quarters, and so on. Similarly, introduce an hour, then a minute, and seconds.
2. Incorporate visual aids
Visual aids such as flashcards, posters, and models can act as a reference and help children understand the concepts better. Tools and resources for visual learning are also useful for retaining the concepts in mind for a long time.
3. Enhance engagement
Ensure that the students are actively participating and are engaged in different activities. To stimulate their brains, keep the children engaged in certain activities, such as drawing clocks, reading time, etc.
4. Constant guidance and feedback
Educators can ensure to provide constant guidance to the students and help them at every stage they are stuck. Further, constant encouraging feedback will help children understand when they are wrong and how to improve.
5. Incorporate home activities
Teachers can encourage children to notice the time they performed different activities at home and note it down, such as when they had dinner or went to play with their friends. Such time-telling activities can strengthen the concepts for children.
Final words
Teaching young minds the concept of time-telling is overwhelming. The concept needs to be introduced in a specific manner and should be stimulating and interesting for children. Otherwise, students will rapidly lose interest in the concept, and it will become challenging to teach them the lesson. The above-mentioned time-telling lesson plan is designed to ensure children remain interested in the concept and learn excitedly.
I am Sehjal Goel, a psychology student, and a writer. I am currently pursuing my Masters’s from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Child psychology has always fascinated me and I have a deep interest in learning about disabilities in children and spreading awareness regarding the same. My other areas of interest are neuropsychology and cognitive psychology. Connect me on Linkedin