Make an Analogue Clock
Engagement Time
20 Minutes
Make an Anologue Clock is designed to improve your little one’s ability to tell the time.
Materials Required
Paper Plate Marker Pen Scissors A Straw Split Pin
Method
Young children tend not to worry about being early or being late unless it is impressed upon them by an adult as they generally have no concept about time unless it relates to a vague notion of breakfast time, lunch time, dinner time or bed time. In this activity you will be able to give your little one the ability to begin reading a clock and create time. To begin creating a clock you will need to mark the hours onto your plate. The most accurate way to do this is to mark in 12 and 6 then 3 and 9 and the 1, 2 the 4, 5, followed by 7, 8, and finally 10 and 11. Once the hours are marked the straw can be cut into a two pieces – one larger and one smaller to represent the hands of the clock. Using the split pin the hands can be fixed to the middle of the clock. You are now ready to create times on the clock. In the first instance it is probably easiest for you to make the time and your little one to tell you which hour you have made, they could then have a turn at creating a given hour time. Once single hours have been mastered you could progress the half and quarter past and to the hours. There is no need for children so young to understand or be able to read a clock and tell the number of minutes past or to each hour but they could be introduced to the concept that each hour represents five minutes for the minute hand and that there are 60 minutes in an hour. Extension: Once your little one has gotten the hang of reading the clock that you have both made you can ask them to let you know when it is a certain hour of the day or when it is half past the current hour using an analogue clock.
