The purpose of this activity is for students to understand how to tell time, using an analog clock with only the hour hand. Students work with a set of cards that show clocks with just the hour hand. When they organize the cards, students focus on the structure of the clock faces, mainly the numbers and where the arrow points (MP7). In the Activity Synthesis, students are introduced to the hour hand and the language that time on the hour is read as“___ o’clock.”

The cards will be used in the next activity and future lessons.

MLR8 Discussion Supports. Synthesis: To support the transfer of new vocabulary to long term memory, invite students to chorally repeat these phrases in unison 1 or 2 times: hour hand, 3 o’clock.

• Invite previously identified students to share.
• “How did _____ organize their clocks?”
• Display the card with the hour hand pointing to the 3.

• “We call this arrow the hour hand and when it points to 3 we say, 3 o’clock.”
• “Let’s say this time together.”
• Repeat with more cards as time permits.

• Display the card that shows 5 o’clock.
• “Find your card that matches this card. What time did you write under this clock? How did you know that it shows 5:00?”
• “Find the card that shows 4 o’clock. How did you know that it shows 4:00? How did you write the time?” (The arrow is pointing to the 4. 4:00)
• Repeat with other cards as time permits. 

The purpose of this activity is to represent the time to the hour on analog clocks and write the time to the hour digitally, using the context of a daily school schedule. Students look at a schedule with the time and activity given and represent the same time on a clock. Students begin to explore the minute hand. 

Teachers can create their own schedule to use for this activity or can use the one provided.

When students connect the times of different activities to the times shown on the clocks, they reason abstractly and quantitatively (MP2).

• Invite previously identified students to share what they have drawn for 4:00.
• “How are these two clocks the same and how are they different?” (One clock has 2 arrows and the other clock has 1 arrow. Both show 4 o’clock, because they have the hour hand pointing to the 4.)