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We’ve just wrapped up learning time to the hour and half hour with my youngest.  I wanted to share with you some of the time activities we did as a supplement to our math lessons, starting with this fun clock hat!  I was surprised how much my son liked making and wearing it. While he wore it, he said he was going to call himself “Dr. Clock.” 🙂

Materials:

• Construction paper or heavy cardstock
• Clock hat templates (see the link at the bottom to download!)
• small metal brads
• scissors
• stick glue
• crayons, markers, or colored pencils
• clear tape (optional)

Directions:

1. Print out the clock hat templates onto construction paper or heavy cardstock.  I just cut some construction paper to 8.5 x 11 size and ran it through my printer.
2. Cut out and assemble the hat by gluing or taping the ends together to make a circular hat.  You might want to put the hat around your student’s head first to get an idea what size it should be.
3. Cut out and glue the clock face onto the center of the hat. Secure the clock hands on the hat with a small metal brad.
4. Have your student fill in the digital time on the small square clocks to match the time written in words.
5. Students color the small square clocks, cut them out, and glue them around the band of the hat in order.
6. Students wear their completed hat!

A fun way to use this hat to assess student learning is to ask them to show you certain times on their hat.  For example, you might ask them to show you a specific time (2 o’clock or half past three).  Students could take off their hats so they could see the clock and move the hands, and then put it back on when they’ve got the correct time.  You might also ask them to show you what time they get up in the morning or what time they eat dinner.  It’s an easy and fun way to get them using a clock to show and read time.  If you’re in a classroom or small group setting, these hats could be really handy because you could easily glance around the room, see the times on their hats, and know if the child has answered correctly.

I love to incorporate reading and writing into other content areas, so we also read and wrote about time this week.  I created an interactive little story called “Peep’s Perfect Day”. It is a beginning emergent reader about time to the hour.  In the book, Peep and his friend, Pip, spend the day at the zoo together.  On each page is an opportunity for students to interact with the text by writing and showing the time on the clock that the characters did a certain activity.

We also created our own books titled, “A Peek at My Day”.  We wrote about different activities and times we did them throughout the day.  I created two different versions: one with minimal writing, and one with more writing space and room for an illustration as well.

We also had some fun doing games and puzzles to practice our new time telling skills. I made time to the hour and half hour 3-piece puzzles.  They require students to match the time in words with both the analog and digital time.

The game my son loved the most was this “A Carton of Clocks” activity I came up with.  A dozen size egg carton is perfect for using with time because it’s divided into twelve sections.  I made a clock to fit in each egg spot and glued it in place.  I had him place a marble inside and close the lid.  Then, I told him to shake, shake, shake the egg carton all around which tossed the marble inside it.  Next, he opened the lid to find what time the marble landed on.  He recorded that time by coloring it in on the graph.

Have you ever done any write-the-room activities?  They’re a huge hit at our house.  It’s a pretty simple concept: place/hide the activity cards around the room, students search and find them, and then record their answers.  My son loves hunting for the cards and thinks it’s cool to use a clipboard as he searches!

These last two games are easy print-and-go options that would also be great for centers or review.  “Roll Around the Clock” has two parts. On the left side of the board, students roll one die and whatever number they roll, that’s what time it is.  So if they roll a two, it’s two o’clock.  Then they write and show the time in both analog and digital form.  On the right hand side, they roll two dice together, add the numbers together, and that’s what time it is.  So if they roll a five and a three, it’s eight o’clock.  Again, they write and show both digital and analog forms.  You could even break it up and have students do one side one day and the other side the next instead of doing the whole sheet at once.

“Half Past Spin Off” is a game to practice telling half past an hour.  The minute hand is always half past the hour.  Using a paper clip, students spin to see what the hour hand will be.  Then, they color in the time on the board.  For example, if they spin and land on 3, the time will be half past 3.  They can choose to color in either 3:30 or half past three, but coloring only one box per spin.  They keep spinning and playing until they’ve colored in five boxes in a row.

Click here to download the clock hat templates for FREE!

The other time activities I described can all be found in my TPT store by clicking on the pictures below.

I hope you’ll stop by to check them out if you’re in need of some math centers and engaging time activities that incorporate both reading and writing!