Teaching Time

" Watches are so named as a remider-if you don't watch carefully what you do with your time, it will slip away from you."-Drew Sirtors

Telling time can be difficult for some students, so it is important that they have a strong grasp on numbers before teaching time. It's possible that they might not have learnt to tell time in their native language. In this case, we use time reference like "in the morning" or "at night", "today" or "tomorrow". With very young learners we often use the classical song " Hickory Dickory Dock" which goes up to 5 o'clock.

Start by showing students famous clocks around the world and see how many they know.

A: Big Ben (London)
B: Astronomical clock (Prague)
C: Musee d'Orsay (Paris)






If these clocks seem unknown, try using images of clocks from your own city:

 

A: Tendillas Square Clock ( its particularity: the sound of the guitar every quarter)
B: Train station clock
C: The Old Veterinary school (Rectorship)


I've used this clock craft with Level 3 students. They decorate their own clocks and can practice telling time in pairs or groups. They can also guess the time and talk about easy routines.

 

For older students a set of cards was prepared. They can be used to teach both analogic and digital time.

  

If you are interested in this topic, there are some interesting resources, especially for older students, teenagers and adults:

•  a briefer history of time: how technology changes us in unexpected ways: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD58Bt2gj78&feature=youtu.be

• a brief history of time by bbc: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-12787502 

Have a nice time!

Alexandra