Teaching Time to 2nd Graders

Have you ever fallen in love with a product/activity you created for your classroom?  Well, I am absolutely in love with my Watch Me Tell Time unit for 2nd graders. In first grade, students worked with telling time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest hour or half-hour.  In second grade, students build upon that knowledge to tell time to the nearest five minutes using a.m. and p.m.  Watch Me Tell Time uses individual student watches to get your students up and moving  and actively involved in learning to tell time to the nearest five minutes.  The unit includes 48 individual watches for you to print out, laminate and have students wear during  activities to teach time to 5 minute intervals. The watches are available in both color and black and white so save printing costs.

In the unit you will find:

• Cards and directions to use the watches to play the game I Have Who Has
• Cards and directions to use the watches to play  the game Find Someone Who Has – 4 different sets of questions using both digital times and words.
• Directions and cards for using the watches to have students create a circle
• Tick Tock, Different ways to read a clock.  Worksheet and directions for an activity in which students show the time on their watch in different ways.
• Directions for groups of students to put themselves in order according to the time on their watches.
• Directions and worksheet for students to illustrate the time on their watch in both am and pm.
• Directions for using the watches as equity sticks and other classroom management ideas

Just click on either of the pictures to take you to the unit on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

To prepare for this unit, you will need to print out the watches, the I Have Who Has cards, and the Digital Time cards on cardstock, laminate them, and cut them out.  You may
print them out in either color or black  and white to save on that expensive ink!  I have tried to make the black and white versions as attractive as the colored ones with cute designs on them, so the kiddos should enjoy them as much as the colored ones!

You have two options for attaching the watches to the students’ wrists.  1. You may simply tape the two ends together, or 2., you may use Velcro.  I used Velcro simply because I didn’t want to deal with sticky tape residue possibly getting on the watches when the kids took them off, but that is strictly up to you.  It is cheaper to use plain ole scotch tape.  With the tape, you will probably have to tape them on the students’ wrists, and with the Velcro, they can take them on and off themselves.

Domain:  Measurement and Data (MD)

Cluster:  Time and Money

Common Core Standard:  2.MD.7.  Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest 5 minutes, using a.m. and p.m.

Standards for Mathematical Practices (MP) emphasized:

MP.5.  Use appropriate tools strategically

MP.6.  Attend to precision

Connections to Other Standards:  (2.MD.7-8)  Building fluency with addition and subtraction, and beyond  are the critical areas of focus addressed in telling and writing time.

Prior Knowledge and Skills:  Students should know how to tell time to the nearest hour and half hour.  They should be able to skip-count by 5’s to recognize 5-minute intervals on a clock.

Common Misconceptions:  Some students have difficulty distinguishing between the hour and minute hands.  For example, when looking at the time 2:30, they might say the time is 3:10, or 3:02. Also, students sometime name the numeral closest to the hands.  For example, for the time 4:55, they might say the time is 5:00; therefore, it is important to provide many opportunities for them to measure times to the nearest five minutes and the nearest hour.

Common terms and phrases:  a.m., p.m., digital, analog, clock, watch, quarter till ___, quarter after ___, half past ___, 5 after ___, 5 before___, 5 past ___.

Well, that’s all for now!  Remember to always… Keep ‘em Thinking!