Teaching Time with Eureka Math

How to tell time  is a fun unit for the students to learn!

It is naturally motivating being such an important part of everyday life. 

The Eureka Math program presents telling time in a concrete way for the younger grades, and it becomes more abstract as the students continue up into the higher grades. The strategies taught in the younger grades will be build upon as students advance.

​At first this can be a challenging topic, however there are ways to support students who struggle with this concept. It is important to make it a fun and hands-on experience!

Clock Models
 
A great way to motivate and draw attention when getting started with the time unit is to use clock manipulatives.  You can use a virtual clock such as this one  or this one to build background of the concept of telling time. To build success, students first will learn how to identify the hour and minute hands. Then they will build on the concept of hours and minutes. Finally, they will learn how to read the clock to express the correct hour and minute of a given time.
 
Eureka Math provides concrete resources as well for teaching time.  For example the Black Line Clock Template which can be found at the end of this grade 1 lesson, provides students with a clock along with an hour hand and minute hand. The hands of the clock are labeled hour and minute. Students can construct a clock using paper fasteners.  Students can then use these clocks to assist them with completing the written work assignments. They can move the hands to model the given times.
 
Teaching Time on a Number Line
 
Another strategy to use when teaching time is a number line.  At the beginning of the number line provide the start of an hour and label with a 00.  Then create segments on the number line in increments of five, just like the clock.  Model for students how to count on by ones between each increment of five.  This is a concrete way for students to see how to count on minutes as time passes.  It also provides students a visual to see how the minutes are increasing while using multiples of five as a benchmark.  When counting minutes around the clock, it can be very challenging for students who are new to the concept.  This will help to create strong connections with what minutes and hours are first. Then they will be prepared for making connections to the clock.
 
Teaching Elapsed Time
 
Once students become comfortable with counting minutes on a number line, they can be introduced to how to find elapsed time also using a number line. Provide students with blank number lines for them to fill in by labeling the start of the hour and increments of five for the minutes.  Then provide scenarios such as school starts at 9:05.  Art will begin at 9:25.  How many minutes have passed?  Students use the number line to count on in increments of five.  Students can also use this strategy to find how much time as passed. They can begin at hmmm the start time and count on minutes needed to get to the end time. The total of minutes between will be how long an activity was.

Application Problems with Time
 
Using the read, draw, write (RDW) process to solve word problems can easily be applied to telling time or elapsed time word problems. Models for the students to use to solve problems with time are number lines or bar models. The strategy of drawing a number line will be a solid concrete strategy for students to use when solving problems.  For the younger students, they are only required to find elapsed time within an hour.  Once students move beyond that, they will still be able to benefit from using a number line.  They will then have to create a start and stop of different hours in between.
 
A great strategy for problem solving with elapsed time is for students to work in partners.  Together, they can read and understand the problem.  Then decide on a model that will show what strategy they are going to use to solve.  Then solve the problem and write the statement. The partnership talk will help drive a variety of strategies for problem solving with time.
 
Telling time and finding elapsed time are connected to the real world for our students. They will dig in to knowing more about the world around them.  They will engage in strategies to help them with these everyday problems.