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Teach your kids about telling time with these super simple and fun activities that you can do at home.
Telling time is a part of life. From school to work, telling time is essential to everyday life, no matter who you are.
Therefore, it’s imperative for children how to tell time. Telling time does the following for kids:
- Help them establish routines
- Help them wind down when it’s time for bed
- Get them used to daily meals, etc.
With that said, learning to tell time can be a lengthy process; but that’s okay. This brief guide will show you 7 fun games and activities on helping your little ones learn to tell time.
Paper Watches
Paper watches are a great arts and crafts idea. You can either make your own or print out a template online.
If you make your own paper watches, you can get the kids involved.
Kids can choose their own color wrist band for their “watches.”
The parents can make the clock hands and markings.
Then, you can show the kids what hours are what, and what minutes are what.
Use this activity to introduce telling time.
Or, you can download paper watch templates from great resources like Our Little Book Club.
All you have to do is print out a template, cut out the pieces, and then let the kids glue the pieces together.
Telling Time Egg Matching Activity
“Plastic eggs are always great for arts and crafts,” says Davy Francisco, a lifestyle writer at UK Writings and State of writing.
To teach kids to tell time in this activity, parents need to write on plastic eggs.
First, mark the hours and minutes on one part of the egg with a drawing of a clock.
Next, write the matching analog-clock time on the other part of the egg.
Then, have the kids match up the clocks with the correct times.
Identify The Hours with Color Blocks
For this activity, you will focus on recognizing which space belongs to which hour.
You can either make your own clocks, or download a template online.
However, make sure that the clocks are blank.
White paper plates and a black marker work great for many of these time telling activities.
Make sure you have plenty of blank clocks to work with, so that you can color the spaces a certain way.
In other words, each hour has their own color.
You may want to divide the hours like a pie to make the coloring part easier.
Now for the time telling activity challenge!
For the activity, challenge your child to color in the spaces belonging to a specific hour or number.
For example, ask your child to color the space that belongs to the hour 4 yellow, the hour 7 in blue, the hour of 12 in pink, etc.
You can do this all one one clock or else have a separate clock for each question.
Color Matching Activity for Telling Time
Another great activity that helps kids to get to know where the hours go is this upcycled clock activity.
To prep this activity, cut out a white paper circle and draw 12 circles on the clock. One for each hour.
have your kids paint the circles in with a different color for each one.
Have bottle caps painted with the same colors and one number on each from 1-12.
Use straws for the minute and hour hands.
For the activity time, match the colored caps to the circles on the clock and start practicing telling time together.
DIY Paper Plate Clock Activity to Tell Time
Paper clocks are simple to make.
You mark the hours and minutes, but then add the hour hands and minute hands to make them move.
Whether you use paper clips, pipe cleaners, or something else for the clock hands in your activity, you can have kids move the hands to experiment with telling time.
The best part? You can either use paper to make the clock from scratch, or use a paper plate.
Or, you can print out an online blank clock template, and then add the clock hands.
Musical Clocks: A Telling Time Game
Kids love to listen to music.
So, why not get telling time involved with a musical activity!
Here’s how to play the game:
- First, create blank clock sheets (or print free online templates).
- Write a variety of times on the clocks. (Kids love helping with this part!)
- Tape the clocks on the walls and furniture around the room.
- Start the music, and let your kids dance around the room.
- Then, stop the music, and have the kids tell the time on the clock closest to them.
- Afterwards, start the music again.
- Keep going!
Play Time Bingo
“Bingo can be more than just a family-night activity,” says Paris Carlisle, a psychology blogger at Paper Fellows and Boom Essays.
Bingos are always customizable, no matter the topic or subject.
A bingo activity for learning to tell time, the bingo cards can have clocks drawn on them.
Get free printables from ESL Printables!
The dealer can draw cards that have analog-clock times written on them.
When the dealer draws a card, kids must find the clock on their bingo card that corresponds with the dealer’s card.
And then when you get a full row, yell BINGO!
Rush Hour Clock Activity
Finally, it’s a Rush Hour time game!
For this activity, use toy clocks and a die. The object of the game is to see who can reach a goal time first. Here’s how to play:
- First, start at 12:00.
- Choose the target time.
- From there, kids can roll the die, and move their clocks ahead the specified number of minutes.
- Kids can take turns doing this, until one of them reaches their goal time first.
Conclusion
So, there you have it!
These 7 fun games and activities are great ways for kids to learn about telling time.
They’re fun things for kids and parents to do whenever they like.
Have fun!
Rebecca Leigh is a marketing strategist and writer at UK Writings and Academized. She is also a contributing writer for OX Essays. As a content writer, she writes articles about tech trends, childcare, and education.
