Read a clock in minutes
Read the minute intervals and the continuous movement of the hour hand.
Begin with the activity ↓Does the long hand at 1 mean one minute?
Each small minute-hand interval is one minute; adjacent hour numerals span five minutes. Sixty minutes make an hour.
The short hand shows hours and the long hand shows minutes. A full minute-hand turn crosses sixty small intervals. During those sixty minutes, the hour hand moves to the next hour numeral.
Twelve large numerals divide the dial into five-minute sections. The long hand at 1 means five minutes; at 2 it means ten minutes. Do not read the hour numeral directly as minutes.
At 9:07 the minute hand has passed 1 by two small intervals. The hour hand is not exactly on 9: it has moved slightly toward 10.
At 12, the minute hand shows zero minutes. At the end of a turn, write the next hour and zero minutes rather than leaving sixty in the minute field. One minute after 9:59 is 10:00.
An analogue face alone cannot distinguish morning from evening: 9 am and 9 pm look alike. In 24-hour notation, 9 pm is 21:00, midnight is 00:00 and noon is 12:00.
The duration 1.5 hours is not one hour five minutes. Half of sixty minutes is thirty, so 1.5 hours means one hour thirty minutes. A clock’s colon is not a decimal point.
Listen one paragraph at a time
Hold on to this distinction
Count intervals rather than tick marks. Minute and hour hands measure different units but move together.
Change it and check
Change the time by one or five minutes. Observe both hands around 9:59 to 10:00 and compare 24-hour notation.
09:07 · 9:07 am
The long hand passes 1 five-minute intervals and 2 single-minute intervals. The hour hand also moves gradually from 9 toward the next numeral.
This activity stays within one selected day, from 00:00 to 23:59. The next lesson handles elapsed time across midnight.
Try with paper and objects
Draw twelve numerals with five intervals between neighbours. Use two paper hands of different lengths to show 3:25.
Check and explain another example
Check your idea 1
Check your idea 2
Apply it in a new setting
Connect the answer to its unit
Return to the explanationCompare with a solution
35 · minutes
Seven intervals of five minutes give thirty-five.
Does your explanation include these ideas?
Explain aloud or in a drawing, then check your ideas. Different wording can express the same meaning.
Continue, or pause here
Convert times into minutes and check the day before finding elapsed time.