In the frame: Time for Tom
11 Apr 2008
Take one boy and a tin of red paint, and what have you got? A great way to teach children about time.
Time can be a difficult concept for children, not least because of the elastic nature we bestow upon it as adults. We vary a minute enormously, depending upon its purpose. In addition, each unit has a different name and not one of them is linked to another by the familiar 1, 10 or 100. By using Tom and the Tinful of Trouble by Nick Sharratt and Stephen Tucker (Scholastic, ISBN 0439944740) alongside hands-on activities, you can help children to overcome these difficulties.
Synopsis
Tom finds a tin of paint under the kitchen sink. It takes him seconds to decide what to do with it, minutes to get the lid off and hours to paint the living room bright red! This is a great book for developing understanding of the relationship between units of time.
Tom’s activities
- Let each child make a paper plate clock. Cut out slightly smaller circles of paper in different colours. Fold and cut the circles in either halves or quarters, depending on whether you want to work on half or quarter hours. * Then allow children to swap pieces so that every section is a different colour, and glue onto the paper plate. Either write the numbers 1 to 12 on the plate or stick printed numbers on. Draw a page of hour hands and another page of longer minute hands, and laminate to make them more robust. The children can attach the hands to their clock with a split pin. Then use the clocks whenever you are looking at analogue time.
- Cut out two giant circles and add an extra large rotating central pointer. Display the days of the week evenly around the edge of one circle and the months of the year around the other. If possible, add a simple illustration next to the days and months. Move the pointers to the correct day and month as necessary. With the addition of a number pocket between the day and month circles for ordinal numbers, the display can be used to ‘read’ the date every day. Use the display to ask questions such as What day will it be tomorrow? Which month comes next? and so on.
- Count the seconds in a minute by counting along with a digital timer. Use the framework ITP from the Standards site by clicking here and click on ‘Tell the time ITP’. Talk about the fact that 60 is never seen – the timer moves from 59 to 00. Use the ITP to display both analogue and digital time, and compare how they change.
- Download the free Counting Time song by clicking here The song focuses on the units of time. It plays at one beat per second and is great fun. When thinking about which time units they need, the children in my class quietly sing the song to themselves.
- Invite children to tell you the time throughout the day. Set a timer for one minute, then one hour. Once you have done this a few times, ask the children to estimate how long a particular activity will take, then use a stopwatch to time it. Award a ‘time traveller’ wristwatch to the person with the best estimate. (A link to the wristwatches can be found at the bottom of this article).
- Give each child a time traveller wristwatch to wear. Either hand everyone the same one or use a mixture (five different versions are available). The children can point to their watch at the correct time as they sing Counting Time or respond with their own time statement when you ask them for the time. I’m sure you can think of many other uses for them!
- Use the ‘Time ladder’ photocopiable for a two-person game about days of the week. Each player requires a copy of the ladder. Put two copies of each day of the week in a cloth bag or strong envelope. The players should take it in turns to remove a card and put it on their time ladder. The first card is placed at the top of the ladder, and the players must place each day of the week on the ladder in the correct space thereafter. Duplicate cards should be returned to the bag and the player misses their turn. The winner is the first person to complete the whole week. This game can be adapted to cover months of the year and the order of everyday activities such as sleeping, brushing teeth, and so on.
Linking Primary Framework objectives
- Year 1: Block D Units 1–3 Use vocabulary related to time; order days of the week and months; read the time to the hour and half hour.
- Year 2: Block D Units 1–3 Use units of time (seconds, minutes, hours, days) and know the relationship between them; read the time to the quarter hour; identify time intervals, including those that cross the hour.
- Play ‘Units of time dominoes’ (This resource can be found by scrolling to the bottom of the page). Prepare the dominoes by photocopying each set onto different coloured paper. Cut out each set, and challenge pairs to complete a domino square using all the dominoes. Give children working next to each other different coloured sets so they don’t get in a muddle!
- Download the cards and grid for ‘Tom’s units of time game’. Up to four players should take turns to select a card from a bag or small tub. If the card matches one of the time periods on their grid, they can keep the card and place it on the appropriate space. The winner is the first person to have a card in each space.
In the frame: Tom and the Tinful of Trouble
Maths worksheets to accompany the Tom and the Tinful of Trouble activities. See pages 38-39 of Child Ed PLUS May ‘08
