Time and the clock — introduction

Time and the clock — introduction

Time and the clock

In Grade 2 you read the clock to the half hour and quarter hour. This year you take three big steps:

  • read the clock to the minute,
  • compute how much time elapsed between two times,
  • convert between hours and minutes.

You'll also learn the order of the days of the week and months of the year.

Two hands, two stories

A clock has two hands:

  • The short hand tells the hour.
  • The long hand tells the minutes.

When the long hand is on 3, it means 15 minutes past the hour (because each big number on the clock is 5 minutes apart).

Why time matters

Time is everywhere — when school starts, how long lunch is, when you can play. Once you can read the clock to the minute, you can plan your day yourself.

What you'll learn here

Try it

Summary

  • Short hand = hour, long hand = minutes.
  • 1 hour = 60 minutes.
  • 1 day = 24 hours; 1 week = 7 days; 1 year = 12 months.
Reading the clock →