How Long Does It Take

Est. Class Sessions: 2

Developing the Lesson

Read a Book about the Passage of Time. Introduce this lesson using a book about the passage of time for different units of time: second, minute, hour, day, week, month, and year. Begin by showing students the front cover of the book to generate interest and familiarize students with the context of the book. If the suggested books are unavailable, another option is to use the display of the Tree 1–8 Master. See the Sample Dialog for the beginning of a discussion about the changes that take place during the time periods on the Tree 1–8 Master.

Ask:

What is the title of the book? Look at the front cover of the book. What do you think this book might be about? (Possible response: This book is probably about what can happen in a second.)
What are some words about time that you can think of? (Possible response: second, minute, day, year)
What is longer than a day but shorter than a month? (week)
If we put these words in order from shortest to longest, how should we list them? (second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year)

As you read the book or show the display of the Tree 1–8 Master, ask questions to help students think about what can happen or the changes that can occur during each of the different units of time.

For example, ask:

Is a [second or few seconds] a very long time? (no)
What do you think you can do in a [second or a few seconds]? (Possible responses: say a word, count to 1, do two jumping jacks)
Do you think a lot can happen in a [minute]? (Possible response: No, because it's a very short time.)
Use the picture or the descriptions of the things that can happen in a [minute] to decide if it's a short time or a long time. (Possible response: It is probably a short time because most of the animals have not moved very far.)

After reading the book or showing the display of the Tree 1–8 Master, ask:

Did anything in the book surprise you? (Possible response: In the book Just a Second: A Different Way to Look at Time, it said that a bear can gallop 805 meters in a minute but a sloth only moves 3 meters in a minute.)
Does an hour sometimes seem short and other times seem long? (Possible response: When I'm playing with my friends it seems short but when I'm doing my homework it seems long.)
Why do you think so many changes take place in a year? (Possible response: It's a long time—12 months or 365 days. The weather changes and there are so many days and nights.)
Compare an hour to a year. What are some changes that could happen in this classroom? (Possible response: In an hour, this classroom will look the same but in a year, there will be different students in this classroom.)

On the last page of the book Before and After: A Book of Nature Timescapes by Jan Thornhill, a section entitled, "Nature Notes" provides a summary of some of the changes that occur between the before and after scenes of each of the seven environments. If you select this book to read aloud, you can use this section to help you develop discussion prompts to use with the students.

Use this sample dialog to guide a discussion of the Tree 1–8 Master or other picture book about time.

Teacher: Look at the "Before" picture of the tree and the "After a Few Seconds" picture of the tree. What changes do you notice?

Grace: In the "Before" picture, the bird and a squirrel are sitting on branches but in the "After a Few Seconds" picture, the bird is flying away and the squirrel is on the next branch. The girl is still under the tree, but she's sitting down.

Teacher: What are some things that are still the same in both pictures?

John: I see that the tree looks the same in both pictures and the sun is in the same place because a few seconds isn't very long.

Teacher: Good thinking. If a long time had passed, would the sun be in the same location in the sky?

Shannon: No, because as the day goes on, the sun moves in the sky.

Teacher: Now, look back at the "Before" picture of the tree and "After a Minute." What are some of the changes you notice in these pictures?

Michael: In the "Before" picture, the girl was on the ground and "After a Minute," she was climbing the tree. The bird is still flying away but he's farther from the tree and the squirrel is starting to climb down the tree.

Teacher: The next picture shows after an hour. Compare it to the "Before" picture. What do you notice?

Linda: In the "After an Hour" picture, the bird is starting to build a nest. The squirrel is eating some nuts, so it must have gone to look for food. The girl is not in the picture, so she must have gone home.

Frank: The sun has moved down a little. It must be getting later.

Teacher: You noticed several changes. These are things that happened in the tree during the hour between the before and after picture. Now, the next picture shows a day later. Compare it to the "Before" picture. What do you notice?

Emma: Now the mother bird is almost finished with her nest. The squirrel and the girl are not in the picture, so they must be doing something else. Also, the tulips on the ground were not open and now they are. The sun is back in the same place it was the day before, so it must be the same time, but it's behind a cloud. It looks like it's going to rain.

Teacher: In the next picture, a week has passed. What changes do you notice?

Katie: I notice that the leaves are starting to take the place of the buds on the tree. Also, the mother bird is sitting in the nest. I think she's sitting on her eggs. It's a sunny day and there are no clouds in the sky. Different kids are in the picture.

Teacher: A month has passed now. How many days in a month?

Jacob: A month is 30 or 31 days, except for February. I notice in the picture that there are 4 baby birds in the nest and the mother is feeding the birds. Chloe: The tulips don't have petals anymore. There are two kids in the picture and they aren't wearing jackets. It must be warmer.

Teacher: In the last picture, a year has passed. Compare the "Before" picture to this picture.

Mark: The tree is a little wider and taller because it's a year later. The baby birds are gone but there's another bird in the tree. The tulips and the buds in the tree look like the "Before" picture. It must be the same time of year. The kids in the picture are dressed like the girl in the first picture.

After you have finished reading the book about the passage of time to your class, place it in a center or in the classroom library for students to read and enjoy. Encourage them to think about the changes that take place over time or what can happen during different periods of time.

Play Seconds, Minutes, and Hours. Tell students that they are going to play a quiet game that will help them get the sense of how long a few seconds and a minute are. If you are using a stopwatch, show it to the students and explain how you will use it to measure time. Tell students that in this game you are going to ask them to move only the tops of their bodies and to pretend their feet are stuck to the floor. Explain you are going to tell them when to start and stop. When they are stopped, they need to stand very quietly and as still as a statue. Allow students an opportunity to quietly test out their moves before you start the game.

When you are ready, use a stopwatch or the second hand on a clock to measure 5 seconds while students move.

Ask:

You just moved for five seconds. Do you think you moved for a short time or a long time? (Possible response: I think it felt like a short time because we just started and you said stop.)

Tell students that they are going to play again but this time you are going to change the length of time that you give them. This time you are going to ask students to move for one minute.

After you time them moving for one
minute, ask:

This time a minute passed before you stopped moving. Which time felt longer to you: a few seconds or a minute? (Possible response: a minute)

Play this game several more times alternating between
5 seconds and one minute.

After each round ask:

Do you think you moved for five seconds or one minute?
How did you decide?

After you finish playing the game, direct students' attention to the "About One Minute" chart you prepared and ask them to think of activities that last about a minute. List these activities on the chart. See Figure 1 for a list of possible activities that can be done in about one minute.

As students contribute each activity, remind them that while some people might take a little longer than a minute and some might take less than a minute to complete each activity, they are all activities that can be done in about one minute.

Refer students to the "About a Few Seconds" chart you prepared and ask them to think of activities that take a few seconds. List these activities on the chart. See Figure 2. Remind students that in the game they just played you sometimes told them to stop moving after a few seconds had elapsed.

Explain that the word few does not refer to a specific number but to a small amount of the total. For example, in the game, each time students moved for a few seconds, 5 seconds was measured on the stopwatch. So in this game, a few seconds is equal to 5 seconds.

Refer students to the "About Five Minutes" and "About One Hour" charts you prepared.

Use these or similar discussion prompts to introduce the charts:

We are going to think about things you can do in five minutes and things you can do in an hour. You thought of things you can do in one minute. What is something that you think you could do in a few minutes? (Possible response: I think it takes me five minutes to get dressed in the morning. See Figure 3 for other possible responses.)
Think about the game we played earlier. How do you think you would feel if you had to move one hour before I said stop? (Possible response: I think I would be tired because one hour is a long time.)
What is something that we do at school that lasts about an hour? (Possible responses might include: art class, lunch and recess, reading time)
What are other things you think take about an hour? (See Figure 4 for possible responses.)

After all four charts have been completed, display them in an area of the room and invite students to add to each chart as they think of new activities.