Teach telling time, using engaging children’s books and videos. Take a look at these great titles and bring life and fun to your Math lessons!
Teach telling time with children’s books and videos! It is a fun and easy way for kids to learn this important math skill. This list of 10 books and 5 videos will give kids the chance to explore time, all while enjoying great audio-visual sources!
Teach Telling Time with Children’s Books and Videos
When teaching time to kids, it’s important to have the right resources that will make learning fun and understandable. These books and videos can help, giving kids simple examples of time and progressing to more difficult time concepts. After reading all of these books and watching all of the videos, kids will be time experts as they practice telling time.
Teach Telling Time with Children’s Books
Books are resources that every teacher and parent should have. Books can teach kids important skills and concepts, all in a fun way that they’ll enjoy. These books will help teach kids all about telling time. Kids will explore time vocabulary, explore how time passes, and even get to practice making time themselves on a hands-on clock!
1. Telling Time: How to Tell Time on Digital and Analog Clocks
The two main clocks used today are digital clocks and analog clocks. In this telling time book, kids will get the chance to explore time on these two, very different clocks. They’ll get to learn more about seconds, minutes, hours and days, exploring more about what time actually means. After reading these books, kids will have a good idea of how to tell time.
2. What Does the Clock Say?
Watches are fun accessories that many kids want to wear, but do they know how to tell time? In this book, kids will get the chance to explore analog clocks, which includes the type of watch they might wear. They’ll learn more about how their counting and skip counting skills will help them learn to tell time. So what does the clock say? Kids will love discovering the answer to this!
3. T is for Time
The concept of time can be a difficult concept for kids to master. In this book, the author uses poetry in alphabetic order, starting with A and ending with Z, in order to teach this concept to kids. It includes well-known inventors, landmarks and structures to demonstrate time. After reading this book, discuss with kids what objects they use to tell time. This can include anything, from a watch to the clock on the microwave!
4. Telling Time with Big Mama Cat
Telling time is important because it helps us know when we need to do something. What time does school start? When is lunchtime? When is it bedtime? Knowing what time goes along with these activities will help kids understand the concept of time and how it passes during the day. In this book, kids will enjoy the adventure of Big Mama Cat as she uses time, from sunrise to sunset, to do all of her favorite activities.
5. Hickory Dickory Dock
Many kids have heard the nursery rhyme, Hickory Dickory Dock. This book is based on that nursery rhyme, but instead of following the traditional storyline, there’s a twist. At every hour, the mouse has funny interactions with different animals. Kids will look forward to the clock striking the next hour in this fun tale.
6. The Clock Struck One
Here’s another telling time book based on the nursery rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock! In this book, however, kids will learn about time as more and more animals chase the mouse. At one o’clock, the mouse runs up the clock. At two o’clock, a cat chases the mouse! Each hour, more animals and people are added to the storyline, making it a great adventure that kids will love! Finally, at midnight, the whole group collapses into a tired pile.
7. Tell Time with the Very Busy Spider
Eric Carle is a beloved author that creates beautifully illustrated books for kids. In this book, kids will get to learn how to tell time with the very busy spider. What makes this book even better is the fact that kids can practice creating time with the built-in clock face! With each page, kids are encouraged to replicate the time, giving them hands-on learning experience!
8. What Time Is It, Mr. Crocodile?
In this book, Mr. Crocodile has a plan for the day. He’s typed out his schedule for the day, which includes eating breakfast at 10:00 and a visit to the library at 1:00. His plan for the afternoon, however, is foiled. He wants to catch the pesky monkeys at 4:00, cook them at 5:00 and eat them at 6:00! By the end of the story, kids will have a great start to learning time while Mr. Crocodile will learn more about being a friend.
9. Around the Clock
Kids that enjoy humor will absolutely love this book! It uses wacky illustrations and examples to explore time, such as the lines, “From 1 to 2, in his fanciest pants, Don is digging a hole to France.” The fun continues with each page, giving kids exposure to time, all in a fun way. After reading this book, encourage kids to create their own illustration and time sentence. They’ll have a blast creating it!
10. Clocks and More Clocks
In this story, Mr. Higgins is very confused by time. First, he checks the hall clock, then the attic clock, followed by the kitchen clock and finally the bedroom clock. The problem is, each clock has a different time and Mr. Higgins doesn’t know which one is right! The Clockmaker, however, helps him understand that all of the clocks are the correct time. He shows him that when he checks the first clock, it’s the correct time. When he walks to the next clock, it takes him two minutes to get there, which is why that clock shows a different time! This book is a great way to show kids how time passes.
Teach Telling Time with Videos for Kids
Videos are interactive tools that make learning fun for kids. This list of videos will teach kids the important concept of telling time! First, kids will learn about the hour hand and how to tell time to the hour. After this is master, kids will move on to more complicated time, learning vocabulary that will help them on this journey. Before they know it, kids will be able to tell time in five-minute increments!
1. Tell Time for Kids: How to Tell Time to the Hour
When introducing time to kids, it’s important to start with the basics. That means starting with the hour! In this video, kids will get the chance to learn and master telling time to the hour. The video uses simple graphics and repeating sentences in order to teach telling time to the hour. They go around the clock practicing each hour, and then do it again to demonstrate mastery! Once kids have the basics down, they’ll be ready to learn how to tell more complicated times, such as using the minute hand.
2. Telling Time for Children
This video is the perfect start for teaching children to tell time. It starts with simple clocks, using the hour hand to tell time to the hour. Then, once kids have a chance to practice that, it introduces the minute hand. It teaches that minutes are counted in increments of 5, so if the hour hand is pointing at the “12” and the minute hand is pointing to the “1”, it’s really 12:05. The video continues by showing different examples of time so that kids can have all the practice they need to learn this skill.
3. Learn How to Tell Time on a Clock
Here’s another great video for introducing time to kids. In this video, kids will learn how the hour hand goes around the clock face in one direction, or clockwise. After demonstrating how to tell the hour, the video then introduces the minute hand, using vocabulary such as “half past” and “quarters”. Kids continue to practice telling time, eventually getting to the point where they can tell time to the nearest 5 minutes.
4. Hip-Hop Around the Clock
If you’re looking for a catchy tune to teach kids about telling time, Hip-Hop Around the Clock is the video for you! This video uses a catchy tune and easy to remember lyrics to demonstrate how to tell time. Kids will love dancing and singing to this song, not even realizing that they’re learning an important math skill! After singing this song, you can give kids different times to practice, encouraging them to change the lyrics to match this time and sing along with the new time.
5. Telling Time to the Half Hour
It’s important to learn important telling time vocabulary, and this video helps! Kids will learn how to recognize a clock face, know the position of the numbers on the clock, and how to tell the difference between the hour and minute hands. The video uses songs and rhymes to teach these concepts, making it easy for kids to remember them! Kids will have a blast singing along with this telling time song.
Time Classroom Resources
Help your students learn how to tell time and build clock skills with comprehensive, hands-on, and fun resources. Click any of the links below to purchase a resource for your classroom.
Measurement & Time (Hour) Kindergarten
Measurement & Time (Hour and Half-Hour) First Grade
Measurement & Time (Nearest 5 minutes & quarter hour) Second Grade
FREE Telling Time Activity
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