How do you tell the time on a clock?
To tell the time on an analog clock, read the short hand for the hour and the long hand for the minutes. The long hand at the top is o'clock, straight down is half past, and each number it points to counts five more minutes past the hour. This game builds that reading habit one clock at a time: it sets the hands, you tap the matching digital time, and the working reads it back in words like half past three so the face and the numbers connect.
How do you play the Telling Time game?
A clock is set to a time and you tap the matching digital time from the four choices below it. The answer checks itself the moment you tap, and the working then reads the time out in words, such as half past three, so the clock face and the digital time connect in a child's mind. Easy uses only o'clock and half past, Medium adds quarter past, quarter to and the five-minute marks, and Hard uses any five minutes around the clock.
Why practice on an analog clock
A digital clock is easy to read but shows time as a bare number, while an analog clock shows it as a quantity you can see, which is why schools still teach it and why it helps a child feel how long a quarter of an hour actually is. Matching the moving hands to a digital time, as this game asks, links the two ways of showing time so that reading either one becomes second nature.
Telling time from grade 1 to grade 4
Reading a clock starts in first and second grade with o'clock and half past, which Easy practices, and moves to quarter and five-minute times by third and fourth grade, which Medium and Hard cover. Because the difficulty is a button, one page carries a child from their very first clock reading up to any time on the dial. For more everyday number skills, our math games have plenty to practice.
Frequently asked questions
How do you play the Telling Time game?
A clock is set to a time and you tap the matching digital time from the choices. The answer checks itself, and the working reads the time out in words, such as half past three, so the clock face and the digital time connect. Easy uses o'clock and half past, Medium adds quarter past, quarter to and the five-minute marks, and Hard uses any five minutes.
What age is telling time for?
Reading a clock is a first and second grade skill for o'clock and half past, moving to quarter and five-minute times by third and fourth grade. Start on Easy and move up as the hands get trickier to read. The same page carries a child from their first clock to reading any time.
Why practice on an analog clock?
Digital time is easy to read but tells you little; an analog clock shows time as a quantity, which is why schools still teach it and why it helps a child feel how long five minutes or a quarter of an hour really is. Matching the hands to a digital time, as this game asks, links the two ways of showing time.