Look up at the clock on our classroom wall. Start at the 12 and count the little marks round to the 3, going up in fives: five, ten, fifteen. If the long minute hand was pointing right at the 6, how many minutes would that be? Have a think before any hands go up.

The clock on screen changes for each time. Watch the minute hand and count round in fives with me.

Here is the rule we are listening for. From o’clock until the minute hand reaches the 6 at the bottom of the clock, we say the minutes PAST the hour: five past, ten past, quarter past, twenty past, twenty-five past, half past. Once the minute hand goes beyond the 6, we count the minutes TO the next hour instead: twenty-five to, twenty to, quarter to, ten to, five to, then the next o’clock.

So the halfway mark, the 6, is where we switch. The same amount past the top can be read two ways. Look at twenty-five past ten, then at ten to seven, and notice which side of the clock the minute hand sits on for each.

Today we set these times together on the board: quarter past two, twenty past five, half past nine, and twenty to four. One person comes up and drags both hands; the rest of us count the minute hand in fives and check.

Today we work through these times one by one: quarter past two, twenty past five, five to eleven, then twenty-five to eight. The last two are to times, so we count the minutes still left until the next hour. We start with five to eleven, where the minute hand is close to the top, and then go to twenty-five to eight, where it is further round. We check each one before moving on.

Today we learned

• Each number on the clock face is five minutes on from the last, so we count the minute hand in fives.
• When the minute hand is on the right-hand side, we say the minutes past the hour.
• When the minute hand has gone past the 6, we stop counting up and say the minutes to the next hour.

Coming up

Next we go even closer, telling the time to the single minute, and we learn how the same time can be written on a clock face or as digits like 7:43.