The Hour and Half Hour

Est. Class Sessions: 1–2

Developing the Lesson

Review the Hour Hand. To begin this lesson show students the one-handed clock prepared for Unit 9 Lesson 9.

Ask:

What do the large numbers on the clock face represent? (They tell you the hours.)
What do we call the hand on the clock that is used to show hours? (the small hand, or the hour hand.)
If the hour hand travels all the way around the clock, how many hours have passed? (12 hours)

Set the hour hand on the clock to 12 o'clock. Ask students to count each hour with you as you move the hand around the clock. Now set the hour hand so it is just before three o'clock. See Figure 1.

Ask:

Between what two hours is the hour hand? (It is between 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock.)
What time does the clock show? (Possible response: It is almost three o'clock.)

Continue to review using the hour hand to tell the approximate time. For example, set the hour hand to show a little after five o'clock, half-way between eight and nine o'clock, or about two o'clock. See Figure 2.

Use these or similar discussion prompts to guide the review:

Between which two hours is the hour hand?
To which hour is the hour hand closest?
Is the hour hand before or after that hour?
Using the hour hand, what time is shown on the clock? Explain how you decided.

Introduce the Minute Hand. Ask students to look at their individual clocks as you display the demonstration clock. Place the demonstration clock near the one-handed clock.

Ask:

What do you see that is similar on both of these clocks? (Possible response: Both clocks have the numbers one through twelve to show hours. Both clocks have an hour hand.)
What do you see that is different on the demonstration clock? (Possible responses: There are two hands on the demonstration clock. The hands are red and blue. The hour numbers are red. There are blue numbers and dots on the demonstration clock and the blue numbers count by 5s.)

Explain that while the red numbers and the red hand on the demonstration clock show us the hours, the blue numbers and the blue hand represent minutes. Tell students that they are going to focus on the minutes that are shown on a clock.

Set the minute hand on the demonstration clock to the 60. Ask students to move the minute hand on their individual clock so that it also points to 60. Since they are focusing only on the minute hand, it is not important if the hour hands are different on each clock. Move the minute hand slowly around the clock as students move the minute hand on their individual clocks. Together, count the minutes that pass by fives.

Ask:

When the blue hand or minute hand travels all the way around the clock face how many minutes have passed? (60)

Set the demonstration clock to six o'clock and ask students to set their individual clocks to show the same time.

Ask:

Using the hour hand, what time does the clock show? (It is 6 o'clock.)
Look at the minute hand. Where is it pointing when it is 6 o'clock? (The minute hand is pointing at the blue 60.)

Ask students to count by fives as you move the minute hand to show that 15 minutes have passed. See Figure 3. Students can also move the minute hand on their individual clock.

Ask:

Where is the blue minute hand pointing? (Possible response: It is pointing at the blue 15.)
How many minutes do you think have passed when the minute hand moves from the 60 to the 15? (Possible response: 15 minutes)

If a student responds that the minute hand is pointing at the three, remind him or her that the red three tells the hour and the blue numbers along the outside edge show the minutes that have passed. See the Content Note.

An analog clock uses at least two distinct scales to show the time. One scale represents the hours and is divided into 12 units. The other scale represents the minutes and is divided into 60 units. The minutes on the demonstration clock are shown along the outside edge of the clock face. Each mark represents 1 minute with numeric markers displayed every 5 minutes. As students identify the position of the minute hand on the clock face, make sure they are using the scale that relates to minutes passed rather than the scale that indicates the hour.

As you move the minute hand on the demonstration clock have students continue to count by fives as they move the minute hand on their clocks to show that 30 minutes have passed.

Ask:

Where is the minute hand pointing now? (Possible response: It is pointing at the 30.)
How many minutes have passed? (Possible response: 30 minutes)

Continue to move the minute hand to show that 45 minutes have passed and then that 60 minutes have passed. Students should identify where the minute had is pointing and how many minutes have passed for each 15 minute segment of time. Your demonstration clock and their individual clocks will now read seven o'clock.

Tell and Write Time to the Nearest Half Hour.
Ask students to look at the hour hand on the demonstration clock.

Ask:

Where is the hour hand pointing on our demonstration clock now? (Possible response: It is pointing at the seven.)
What time is shown on the demonstration clock? (7 o'clock)
Where is the minute hand when it is 7 o'clock? (Possible response: It is pointing at the 60.)
What time was it before we started moving the minute hand around the clock? (6 o'clock)
Where was the minute hand pointing when it was 6 o'clock? (Possible response: It was pointing at the 60.)
How many times did the minute hand move around the clock to make the hour hand move from 6 o'clock to 7 o'clock? (Possible response: We moved the minute hand all the way around the clock one time.)
How many minutes passed between 6 o'clock and 7 o'clock? (60 minutes)

Explain to students that each time the minute hand travels 60 minutes around the clock one hour passes. To illustrate this, have them observe the movement of the hour hand on the demonstration clock as you move the minute hand slowly around the clock so that the hour hand moves from 7 o'clock to 8 o'clock.

Ask:

What did you notice about the hour hand as I moved the minute hand around the clock? (Possible response: The hour hand moved from the 7 to the 8.)
When the hour hand is pointing at the 8 and the minute hand is on the 60, what time does the clock show? (8 o'clock)

Display the Tell and Write Time Master. Draw the hour hand and minute hand to show 8 o'clock on the first clock face and write the notation 8:00 under the clock. See Figure 4. Explain this is one way to write the time for 8 o'clock. Explain that the first number tells you the hour and the numbers after the colon tell you how many minutes it is after the hour. Ask students to set their individual clocks to show 8 o'clock.

Now move the minute hand, counting the minutes by fives, to show that 30 minutes have passed as students move the minute hand on their individual clocks. Have students notice the position of both the hour and minute hand.

Ask:

Where is the minute hand pointing on the clock? (at the 30)
Where is the hour hand pointing on the clock? (Possible response: It is in the middle between the 8 and the 9.)
How many minutes after 8 o'clock are shown on the clock face? (30)

Draw the hour and minute hands on the second clock on the display of the Tell and Write Time Master. See Figure 5. Explain that when the minute hand moves halfway around the clock and stops on 30 minutes a half of an hour has passed. That means it is halfway between 8 o'clock and 9 o'clock. Write the notation 8:30 under the clock on the display. Explain that to record this time you write the hour as 8 and then write the 30 to show that 30 minutes have passed. Explain that you read this notation as "eight-thirty."

Use the third clock on the display of the Tell and Write Time Master to show 9 o'clock. Write the notation 9:00 under this clock. Have students move the minute hand on their individual clock as you move the minute hand on the demonstration clock from 8:30 to 9:00.

Count the minutes by 5s starting with 35 and ending with 60.

Ask:

What time is shown on the clock? (9 o'clock)
Where is the hour hand pointing? (at the 9)
Where is the minute hand pointing? (at the 60)
What does the first number in 9:00 tell you about the time? (Possible response: It tells you the hour is 9.)
What does the number after the colon in 9:00 tell you about the time? (Possible response: It tells you the number of minutes after the hour. So at 9:00, no minutes have passed.)

Use similar discussion prompts to continue practicing telling time to the nearest hour and half hour. Move the minute hand on the demonstration clock. Encourage students to count the minutes by 5 as you move the hand and to move the minute hand on their individual clocks. Record the times and time notations on additional display copies of the Tell and Write Time Master.

Direct students to the Telling Time pages in the Student Activity Book. Ask students to work with a partner to complete Questions 1–8. In Questions 1–2, students circle the correct time shown on each clock. For Questions 3–6, students fill in the missing information to complete each time. In Questions 7–8, students write the time shown on each clock.