Learning to tell the time

This post is full of resources to help your children learn to tell the time. We would teach it in the following sequence at school:

Time to o' clock (recognising long and short hand) This youtube video is a good basic starter.
Time to the half hour (understanding the short hand shows the hour and that it will travel between the hours on an analogue clock)
Time to the quarter hour
Time to the nearest 5 minutes. We would link this to times tables knowledge. The concept of to the hour is more difficult than past the hour. There is a video here that might help
Time to the nearest minute. (The concept of to the hour is more difficult than past the hour.)
The concept of am and pm
Digital times and how they relate to analogue
The 24 hour clock - converting between 12 and 24 hour clock
Timetables (e.g. train, television schedules)

Throughout these, we would interweave problems. Once children are confident with telling the time, we would add time intervals, e.g. How many minutes until something happens; it takes 20 minutes to walk to school. I need to be there at 10 past 9. What time should I leave home?

These resources should help


Interactive games from Topmarks

Snappy maths has a range of different worksheets for printing and lots of links to interactive games if you scroll down

BBc bitesize What is time?

Nrich problems these require the children to use their mathematical knowledge, perseverance and stamina. They will need to draw on a range of skills and strategies.