Telling Time: O'clock, Half Past, Quarter Past and Quarter to

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1 Getting Started
2 Watch and Notice
3 Try It Together
4 Draw the Times in Your Copy
5 Class Challenge
6 What Did We Notice?
7 What's Next
Pupil practice

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

Illustration for Getting Started Look at the big clock on the board. It is showing 3 o'clock right now. The two hands are doing very different jobs. One of them is telling you the hour, and one of them is telling you the minutes.

Hands up: which hand do you think moves the fastest around the clock face, and which one tells us the hour?

Teacher Notes

Display a clock face showing 3 o'clock as pupils settle. Take three hands-up answers, not open call-outs. Give five seconds of quiet think-time before any hands go up.

You are listening for the idea that the long hand moves fast (a full lap in an hour) and the short hand moves slowly and tells the hour. Don't confirm yet — that is what Watch and Notice unpacks.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

The clock on screen shows four different times, one after another. Before we name them, we will watch what each hand does.

First, look carefully at the two hands. The long hand is the minute hand: its job is to tell the minutes. The short hand is the hour hand: its job is to tell the hour.

Here is one clear example of their speeds. Start at 2 o'clock. The long hand sits on 12 and the short hand sits exactly on 2. When a full hour passes and the clock reaches 3 o'clock, the long hand has raced all the way round the face once and is back on 12. In that same hour the short hand has only crept from the 2 to the 3. So the long hand moves fast (a full lap every hour) and the short hand moves slowly.

Now watch each of the four times. Each time, look at the long hand first, then the short hand.

Teacher Notes

Open with the hands and speeds before any landmark naming. Point: long hand = minute hand (fast, full lap in an hour); short hand = hour hand (slow, creeps number to number).

Worked example (one hour): Set or show 2 o'clock. Long hand on 12, short hand exactly on 2. Move to 3 o'clock. Ask: how far did the long hand go? (all the way round, back to 12). How far did the short hand go? (only from 2 to 3). Revoice: long hand fast, short hand slow. Hands-up check: which hand tells the minutes? which tells the hour?

Then walk each on-screen clock, long hand first then short hand. Take each quick check with hands-up.

2 o'clock: long hand straight up on 12, short hand exactly on the 2. Ask which number the long hand points at.

Half past 4: long hand straight down on 6, short hand halfway between 4 and 5. Stress it is between, not on the 4.

Quarter past 6: long hand on the 3, a quarter (one of four equal parts) round; short hand just past 6. Ask how far round the long hand has gone, one part or all four. Then turn-and-name: tell your neighbour how far round it went.

Quarter to 9: long hand on the 9, a quarter left to go; short hand nearly at 9. We say the hour it is heading to. Slip to watch: naming the hour just left rather than the one reached. Ask which hour the short hand is reaching towards.

No-IWB fallback: set the worked example then these four times on a geared demonstration clock, or show pre-set printed faces in the same order.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Try It Together ~8 mins

Today we work through these landmark times together on the board: 7 o'clock, half past 10, quarter past 3, and quarter to 5. We re-set the same clock for each time, dragging the hands to show it, then check the short hand and the long hand are both in the right place before we move to the next time.

Show the landmark time

Teacher Notes

This round is for talking it through together — pupils take turns at the board and the class agrees or corrects out loud. The same explore clock is re-dragged for all four times, so reset it between each.

Call a landmark time, then send one pupil to the board to drag the hands. Before they finish, ask the class aloud: 'where should the long hand point? where should the short hand sit?'

Rotate four pupils across the four times. Watch for the half-past slip where pupils leave the short hand exactly on the hour number instead of halfway to the next.

No-IWB fallback: pupils set a geared demonstration clock at the front, or each shows the called time on a printed clock face with split-pin hands.

+15 XP

4 - Draw the Times in Your Copy ~3 mins

COPYBOOK MOMENT

In your maths copy, draw four blank clock faces. Show a different time on each one: o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to. Underneath each clock, write the time in words.

Teacher Notes

Walk the room glancing at the hands — is the long hand straight up for o'clock, straight down for half past, on the 3 for quarter past, on the 9 for quarter to? This is whole-class copybook practice, not marking.

Printable support: for pupils who find drawing an even clock face hard, hand out a printed blank clock face (numerals already on it) so they only need to add the hands and write the time underneath.

+10 XP

5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

Now we work through these times one at a time on the board: 5 o'clock, half past 8, quarter past 11, and quarter to 2. For each one, set the hands.

Check first

Check before we move on: is the short hand exactly on the number, or has it moved past it?

Set the clock to the called time

Teacher Notes

These are the practice questions — pupils take turns at the board, check each answer, and the class confirms before moving on. Keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining.

For each time, ask aloud the check question now shown on screen: 'is the short hand exactly on the number, or has it moved past it?' The half-past and quarter-to cases are where the short hand sits between numbers. Press Check after each so the class sees the ✓.

No-IWB fallback: call each time and have pupils set it on a geared demonstration clock or a printed clock face, with the class confirming yes or no.

+15 XP

6 - What Did We Notice? ~2 mins

MATHS TALK

How does the short hand tell us the hour, even when the long hand is pointing somewhere else? Think about quarter to 2 — the short hand was nearly at the 2, but not on it.

Teacher Notes

Listen for pupils who name the short hand as creeping between numbers rather than jumping. Revoice a strong answer: 'so the short hand is on its way to the next hour, and where it sits tells us how far through the hour we are'.

Head off the quarter-to misconception: at quarter to 2 the short hand is almost at the 2, so we say the hour it is heading to, not the one it has just left.

+10 XP

7 - What's Next ~3 mins

What we learned today

The long hand tells the minutes; straight up is o'clock and straight down is half past.
The long hand on the 3 is quarter past; on the 9 is quarter to.
The short hand tells the hour, creeping between the numbers as the hour goes on.

Coming up

Next we will read the clock more closely, counting round the face in fives to tell the time at every five-minute mark.

Teacher Notes

Pupils now move to the Activity Book page for 10–15 minutes of pencil-and-paper practice while you circulate.

+5 XP

Pupil practice

Module 6 · Time and Money Shape & Space

Lesson 60 · Telling Time: O'clock, Half Past, Quarter Past and Quarter to

Download Activity Book page (PDF)

End of lesson

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Teacher Class Feed

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

3 - Try It Together ~8 mins

Show the landmark time

4 - Draw the Times in Your Copy ~3 mins

5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

Set the clock to the called time

6 - What Did We Notice? ~2 mins

7 - What's Next ~3 mins

What we learned today

Unlock the full learning experience

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