Telling Time to the Minute: Analog and Digital

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1 Getting Started
2 Watch and Notice
3 Try It Together
4 Write Past or to 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 clock in the picture. The minute hand is sitting somewhere between the 8 and the 9. It is not exactly on a number, so it is not a tidy 'past five' time.

What exact minute could it be? Could it be 41, or 42, or 43, or 44? How would you work out which one?

Teacher Notes

Take three hands-up answers, not open call-outs. Give five seconds of quiet think-time before any hands go up.

Listen for whether pupils know to start from the nearest five (40, on the 8) and count single minutes on. That is the whole hook for the lesson.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

Each clock shows the same time two ways: hands and digits. Watch where the minute hand sits and how we read it out. Some are easier to say as 'past', some as 'to'.

Teacher Notes

Eighteen past three: core skill, counting on the single minutes. Hand just past the 3, so fifteen, then count sixteen, seventeen, eighteen.

7:43: say both ways so pupils hear the link. Forty-three minutes past seven, or seventeen minutes to eight.

2:09: nine minutes past two. Pause on the leading zero. Ask why not 2:9? Revoice: keep two digits after the colon.

11:56: four minutes to twelve. Minute hand nearly at the top. Watch for misreading the hour hand as 12.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Try It Together ~11 mins

Today we set these to-the-minute times on the clock together, and check the digital readout matches each one: 3:12, then 6:47, then 8:09.

While one pupil sets the hands at the board, the rest of us follow along: count the single minutes aloud together, then read the digital screen and confirm it matches before we move on.

Key point

For each one we will start from the nearest five and count the single minutes on, then read what the digital screen says.

Set the time, check the digits

Teacher Notes

This round is for talking it through together — pupils take turns at the board while the watching class counts the single minutes aloud and agrees or corrects.

The digital readout is shown, so after a pupil sets the hands the class confirms the digits match. Watch for the 8:09 case: pupils tend to set the minute hand a touch too far. Revoice: nine minutes, so just past the start, and we write the zero in front.

+15 XP

4 - Write Past or to in Your Copy ~3 mins

COPYBOOK MOMENT

In your maths copy, copy these four digital times, one under the other. Beside each, write whether it is a 'past' time or a 'to' time, and how many minutes.

Remember: minute hand after the 12 = past, before the 12 = to.

4:17
9:38
1:06
10:52

Teacher Notes

Walk the room glancing at the past/to label and the minute count — this is whole-class copybook practice, not marking. Watch for 1:06 written as 'six minutes to' instead of 'six minutes past'.

+10 XP

5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

Today we work through these fresh times together: 5:23, then 9:41, then 4:07, then 11:59. The single minutes past the nearest five catch people out, and so does the zero before a single-digit minute, so we will count each one aloud before we check it.

Set the time to the minute

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.

Watch the single minutes past the nearest five (the 5:23 and 9:41 cases), and mind the zero before a single-digit minute on 4:07. For 11:59, the hour hand is almost on the 12; say one minute to twelve to head off pupils reading the hour as 12.

+15 XP

6 - What Did We Notice? ~3 mins

MATHS TALK

Why is 7:43 the same time as 'seventeen minutes to eight'? What helps you switch between the two ways of saying it?

Teacher Notes

Listen for pupils noticing that 43 minutes past plus 17 minutes to make a full 60-minute hour. Revoice a strong answer: so once you pass the half-hour, it is often quicker to count back to the next hour. Head off the idea that 'to' times use a different clock — it is the same hand, just named from the hour ahead.

+10 XP

7 - What's Next ~2 mins

What we did today

We counted single minutes on from the nearest five-minute mark to read the exact minute.
We matched an analog clock face to its digital readout, and read times as 'past' or 'to'.
We remembered the zero before a single-digit minute, like 2:09.

Coming up

Next we meet the 24-hour clock, where the afternoon and evening hours keep counting on instead of starting again at 1.

Teacher Notes

Keep this brisk. The leading-zero rule and the 'past/to' switch are the two things worth one last sentence each before the lesson closes.

+5 XP

Pupil practice

Module 6 · Time and Money Shape & Space

Lesson 66 · Telling Time to the Minute: Analog and Digital

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Teacher Class Feed

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

3 - Try It Together ~11 mins

Set the time, check the digits

4 - Write Past or to in Your Copy ~3 mins

5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

Set the time to the minute

6 - What Did We Notice? ~3 mins

7 - What's Next ~2 mins

What we did today

Coming up

Unlock the full learning experience

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