Recently, I put together this telling time activity for my son. It combines his love of numbers, schedules and routines. He really likes to read train and bus schedules and is constantly asking what time it is. That’s very convenient for me because he helps me be on time! This past weekend we took a trip into Manhattan to the theater and we made a chart to track our travel times.
On the left hand side I wrote down the notable events and breaking points in our trip. The middle column holds a blank space where we can write the time in numbers. The right hand side contains blank clock faces. (I traced around a quarter to make the clock faces uniform.)
Our time telling activity sheet before:
At each designated moment we noted the time both in the middle and right-hand columns. I asked Kiddo where to place the hands on the clock face. I would have had him write and draw the times on his own, but it was easier this way since we were traveling.
He was totally into it! I was surprised to find out that he was able to accurately tell me how to draw the clock hands! I don’t remember teaching him that! His mind is like a sponge. Mine is like a sieve.
Our time telling activity sheet after:
Seeing the end results helped Kiddo develop a sense of how the time had passed, especially looking at the clock faces. For a more advanced telling time activity, you could easily adapt this so kids make calculations about the time between each event.
Happy Travels!
More to explore:
- Mystery clock time telling game
- Math books for preschoolers
- Shape activities for preschoolers
- Why you should take your kids to the theater
- Picture books about the theater
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Bona Fide Mama says
September 21, 2009 at 11:27 pmmaybe that is what i need to do with he-man. he makes me nuts with is time “issues”.
Nellie says
September 21, 2009 at 9:36 pmAgain, very cool.
Christy says
September 22, 2009 at 6:34 pmI definitely have to try this! Great idea. I wish I lived in the area too!
Allison from The New Victory Theater says
September 25, 2009 at 2:40 pmWow, so very cool! Thanks so much for posting about the New Vic and our production of Cinderella – we love patrons like you and we're so pleased you were inspired to write about us! If you'd like, check out our facebook to share your thoughts with other fans…