“Time to go!” “Just biding my time.” “Time heals all wounds.” Time and again we use the word “time” because it’s lurking alongside everything we do. So today we made sure kids know how to tell time – on both analog and digital clocks, so they can read old-style watches and fancy clocks on historic buildings.
We connected it to the universe too, showing how as Earth turns from night into the sunshine of day, different cities reach dawn at different times, which is why we have time zones. Finally, the older grades played a time-zone game where they had to fly to the Super Bowl on time!
Keep having a great TIME at home with these challenges:
- On a digital clock, find times that make cool number patterns, such as:
- How many times in a day read the same forwards and backwards? like 12:21, 4:54, etc.
- How many “equation” times are there, e.g. 1:23 looks like 1 + 2 = 3, and 12:36 looks like 1 x 2 x 3 = 6
- On an analog clock, how many times a day do the arms make a right angle? Remember, the hands can show in either order – both 9:00 and 3:00 work. And so do the times at other crazy angles, like 2:25!
- To follow the passage of time, have your kids look at the time and guess when you’ll complete a task you’re about to do, like driving to the store, finishing homework or making a craft.
- Put the “time” in dinnertime: In a meal that has multiple items cooking for different lengths of time, challenge your kids to figure out when to start each item so they all finish at the same time.
