What time is it?!

Weeeeelllllcomeee Back!

So this week I thought we could go into a fourth-grade classroom.. it has been a long time since I have been in one. Maybe you have guessed it but the topic we are covering this week is time.  The Common Core Standards sticks time in the Measurement and data category so this standard states that students should:

4.MD.A.1

Know relative sizes of measurement units within one system of units including km, m, cm; kg, g; lb, oz.; l, ml; hr, min, sec. Within a single system of measurement, express measurements in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Record measurement equivalents in a two-column table.

The topic of converting time also follows the same standard. We as educators can save time (haha) and teach these two together. 

Time was a difficult thing for me, not the whole concept really but more trying to visualize it on an analog clock. with a lot of help and the use of only analog clocks for a while, i got better and quicker at being able to tell the time. 

To start, we need to make sure that our students understand how time works, whether it is seconds, minutes, and hours or even days, weeks, months or years. 

We can warm our students up by playing this fun and simple video. (In the comments a lot of fourth-grade teachers praise this song) 

Once you have those little math brains powered on, get your students comfortable with how this whole time thing works. 

I would personally start with an analog clock or type of activity. I know students will mostly be familiar with digital but its easier to explain with the analog. I really like these anchor charts to help you. 

And this activity can be used as a warm-up or as the lesson is fun as well. The second activity is where they can roll the dice and then they have to take the digital time and write it as the analog time. I thought that was an easy way to roll into the topic. This third activity is an extremely fun way to have the class up and out of their seats and interacting together while learning. 

When the fun is over and its time to move on to some time conversations this activity could help students understand that time and days, weeks, years all relate.  Maybe having the students looking at a calendar would help them make that connection as well. 

And of course, if we need to have a cheat sheet for our students we could always make them one like this.