Telling the time activities – Day 2

To start I showed the boys how to draw clock hands on some colored card. We talked a little more about the difference in their size, and how some clocks had a second hand, but that we were not going to be adding those. I helped Teddy cut his out, but William happily did his own. He’s really getting SO much better at scissors. I wish I’d started all this before he went to Kindy because there won’t be so much cutting in 1st grade. Teddy will be a pro for K! Once we had our hands cut we put them to the side. I then let they choose 12 colored circles that I had already had. They both wrote their own numbers on them for the hours. Once this was done we repeated the process, but with smaller circles, and for these they wrote the minutes.

Once everything was cut and ready we got the glue out. To start I asked them where “twelve” should go on their clock. We glued that one on, and then to help them space evenly we did six next. After that we did three and nine. At this point I stopped them to quickly go back over halves and quarters and to show them how they had split their clocks into those fractions. I then helped Ted with the spacing to glue on the remaining numbers. William worked independently and did an awesome job. As the hours were attached I paused the craft to attached the hands myself. I really need to find my hole punch, every time I need to use a split pin in something I nearly lose a finger using a knife to make a hole. Nobodies got time for the ER right now. Maybe I’ll prime a new one. We all know the minute I click “purchase” the old one will turn up though, that’s just how the world works. I then turned the clocks back over to the boys and they glued on their minutes. This week has been so good for our counting by 5’s skills.

Today for our educational activity we combined with our craft. Now that both the boys had a large scale clock with hands they could move it seemed like a missed opportunity not to use them. I found some lovely digital clock templates on twinkl (linked below). To start I chose one that just showed a time to the hour and asked the boys to tell me what time it said. Then I asked them to show me the time it said on their clock. We did a couple more together, to check it wasn’t a one off. Once I knew they’d got it I laid them cards out on the table and let them choose their own. Then I sat back and made a cup of coffee whilst listening to the two boys grabbing times, shouting them out and talking together. I know I say it all the time, but the first year of having two little boys so close in age was horrendous. I hardly knew which way was up. Seeing them now though, a few years later, enjoying each other’s company so much, learning together, makes up for some of the hardship back then.