I have noticed that generally children get interested in clocks early on – before they are old enough to be able to read the analog clock all on their own. In order for children to be able to tell time with analog clocks they need to :
- be able to recognise numbers 0-60
- know fractions
- be familiar with definition of past and present, a.m, pm., afternoon, noon
Usually preschool children do not have knowledge of these math concepts, however, schedules and time is something that often becomes an important part of child’s everyday life at this age. They are curious to know what time daddy comes home, when their favourite show starts and how long it takes to get to the park. I found that the best way to introduce concept of time, telling time and different clocks is to do it gradually, starting from simple tasks:
- wearing a watch – my daughter got her first watch ( by request ) for her 4th Christmas. At this age she learnt that the small hand on the clock is the hour hand. She was very proud to be able to tell what o’clock it was. We got analog watch just because this is the most commonly used type of clocks at homes and in public areas – in waiting rooms, libraries, schools, etc.
- telling o’clock with play clock – we have a great wooden clock that we use for telling time. With the help of this play clock I showed introductory lessons on: types of hands – minute and hour, we talked that there are 24 hours in a day, 12 o’clock on clock face and 60 minutes in one hour, the direction in which hands move.
- matching digital time display with play clock
- step-by-step guide to learning about clock face – we did that by constructing our own play clock using Montessori math beads, which was inspired by Montessori Soul’s idea, and using Lego. As you know, Lego is incredibly versatile material and great for developing problem-solving skills. Blossom was very excited to create her own play clock together with me. Hands-on aspect of putting this together helped her: better remember parts of the clock and introduce 5 minute intervals for minute count (counting in 5s), practise one-to-one correspondence. We used task cards I made to move hands in order to match the digital clock display. You can download this set of task cards by signing up to the newsletter below.
I hope you were inspired to have fun creating learning hands-on experiences for your child. Feel free to tell me about your experience teaching to tell time in the comments!Thank you for visiting! Please note, this post may contain affiliate links to products I use or recommend.