Mastering the clock is a milestone skill that connects children to the rhythms of daily life, yet many young learners find this concept challenging to grasp.
This collection of effective telling time activities transforms abstract time-telling into concrete, engaging experiences that make sense to developing minds.
Each activity is chosen for its ability to reinforce the fundamentals of clock reading while also making the learning process enjoyable and relatable.
From hands-on clock manipulatives to playful time-telling games, these creative approaches help children understand hours, minutes, and the relationship between digital and analog displays.
1. What Time Is It? Clock Coloring Fun!
In this clock-coloring activity, students practice time-telling by shading the correct pie slice of the clock that matches the given time.
Learn more: Around the Kampfire
2. Paper Plate Clock to Practice
By creating their own clocks using a paper plate, numbered markers, and movable hands, students gain a hands-on experience that strengthens their understanding of how analog clocks work.
Learn more: PBS Org
3. DIY Window Clocks
Using paper or cardboard, students can design a clock face with movable hands, cutting out a small window at the top or bottom to display specific times or time-related questions.
Learn more: Natural Beach Living
4. AM or PM Worksheet
This Worksheet helps students distinguish between morning and afternoon/evening time in real-life scenarios. By presenting various daily activities, students must decide whether the event occurs in the AM or PM and write the correct time designation.
Learn more: K5 Learning
5. Tick-Tock Popsicle Clock
Using popsicle sticks to form the clock’s hands and a circular base for the clock face, students can easily manipulate the hands to show different times. This activity reinforces their understanding of how the hour and minute hands work together on an analog clock.
Learn more: In the Bag Kids Craft
6. Color Coding for Clarity
Each circle can represent a specific unit such as seconds, minutes, or hours allowing students to visualize and understand the relationships between these time intervals.
Learn more: Kids Activities Blog
7. Ice Cream Cone Telling Time Matching
This activity combines fun and learning as students match different clock faces to their corresponding times represented on ice cream cones. Each cone can display a specific time, while students find and pair it with the correct analog clock.
Learn more: 3 Dinosaurs
8. Snowman Clock Matching Activity
This Activity offers a delightful way for students to practice telling time while engaging with a seasonal theme.
In this activity, students match clock faces on snowman cards with the correct times displayed on separate cards. Each snowman can represent a different time, and students must identify and pair them accurately.
Learn more: Kindergarten Worksheets and Games
9. Time Clip Cards
Each card features an analog clock displaying a specific time, along with multiple time options listed below. Students use clothespins or clips to mark the correct time on each card, making the learning process interactive.
Learn more: Life Over C’s
10. Clock Playdough Mats
These mats feature blank clock faces where students can use playdough to form the hour and minute hands based on a given time.
Learn more: This Is Reading Mama
11. Clock Hats
Clock Hats are a fun, wearable tool that helps students practice telling time in an engaging way.
Each student creates a hat featuring a large clock face on the front, with movable hour and minute hands. Teachers can call out specific times, and students adjust the hands on their hats accordingly.
Learn more: Primary Theme Park
12. Telling Time Match
Each egg can be split in half, with one side showing an analog clock and the other displaying the corresponding digital time. Students must find and match the correct halves to form a complete egg.
Learn more: The Stem Laboratory
13. DIY Telling Time Wristwatch
Made from a paper or cardboard strip shaped into a bangle, students can draw a clock face with movable hour and minute hands around the band. Teachers or classmates can call out specific times, and students adjust the hands on their bangle to show the correct time.
Learn more: Nurture Store Co. UK
14. DIY Paper Watch
This DIY Paper Watch is a simple and engaging craft that helps students practice telling time in a fun, wearable format. Using paper or cardstock, students can create their own watch with a clock face and movable hour and minute hands.
Learn more: 10 Minutes of Quality Time
15. Telling Time Puzzles
Telling Time Puzzles offer an interactive way for students to practice matching analog and digital times. Each puzzle piece features either an analog clock or a digital time, and students must match the correct pairs to complete the puzzle.
Learn more: 123 Homeschool 4me
16. File Folder Activity
This folder activity is a practical and organized tool for helping students practice matching analog and digital times.
Inside a file folder, create sections or flaps featuring analog clocks on one side and digital times on the other. Students can match the clock face to the corresponding digital time by placing cards or moving pieces into the correct spots.
Learn more: Mr. Printables
17. Interactive Time-Telling Fun
In this activity, students are presented with clock faces displaying different times and are tasked with writing the corresponding time in digital format. This exercise reinforces their understanding of how to read analog clocks while improving their ability to express time in writing.
Learn more: Playdough Potato
18. Clock Color Match-Up
sIn this activity, students receive sheets featuring colorful analog clock faces and corresponding digital time options. They must draw lines or use colored markers to color the matching pairs.
Learn more: Teaching Second Grade
19. 5 Minute Interval Paper Plate Clock
The 5-Minute Interval Paper Plate Clock is a hands-on activity designed to help students understand time increments in a fun and engaging way.
Using a paper plate as the clock face, students can mark the hours and add additional lines or dots to represent 5-minute intervals around the circumference.
Learn more: Learning Ideas Grades K-8
20. Hoops Learning Clock
In this activity, students lay out hoops to represent different sections of the clock. They can draw or place markers inside the hoops to indicate the hours, while using additional hoops to illustrate the hour and minute hands.
Learn more: One Extra Teaching Degree
21. Paper Plate New Year’s Clock
The Paper Plate New Year’s Clock is a festive and engaging craft that helps students practice telling time while celebrating the New Year.
Using a paper plate as the base, students can decorate the clock face with New Year’s themes such as stars, fireworks, or other celebratory motifs while marking the hours.
Learn more: The Pinterest Ed Parent
22. Sunflower Clock for Activity
The Sunflower Clock activity is a creative and visually appealing way for students to practice telling time.
Using a paper plate or a circular piece of cardstock, students can create a sunflower clock by decorating the edges with petals, each labeled with a different hour.
Learn more: Pinterest/Sanskar Education
23. Bug Tell Time Clock
This activity combines creativity with learning as students practice telling time using a fun bug-themed clock. They can use movable hands made from cardstock or paper to indicate different times.
Learn more: Pinterest/ Llham Zerhouni
24. Robo-Time Match-Up
The Robo-Time Match-Up activity introduces a fun, technology-themed approach to learning how to tell time.
In this interactive activity, students are provided with cards featuring robotic characters alongside either analog clocks or digital times. The goal is to match each robot with the correct time representation.
Learn more: From Pond Blog Spot
25. Time Loop
Students are provided with sticky notes, each labeled with different times in either analog or digital format. They take turns placing their sticky notes around the hoop, aligning them with the correct positions as if they were on a clock.
Learn more: Pinterest
26. Build a Snowman Clock
This activity combines creativity with learning as students create their own snowman-themed clocks. Using paper or card stock, students can craft a snowman with three circles stacked vertically, each representing a part of the clock.
Learn more: The Stem Laboratory
27. Pairing Up the Hours
In this interactive activity, students are given cards featuring different clock faces displaying various times. They must pair each clock card with another that shows the same hour but in a different format, such as a written time or a digital clock.
Learn more: From Pond Blog Spot
28. Telling Time with Apple
In this activity, students create apple-themed clock cards that display different times on analog faces, while corresponding digital time cards can be created separately.
Learn more: Life Over C’s
29. What Does the Clock Says?
In this activity, students practice their time-telling skills by analyzing clock faces and articulating their observations in a descriptive paragraph.
For example, if a clock shows the big hand at 7 and the little hand at 3, students would write: “The big hand is at 7, which means it is pointing to the 35-minute mark.
Learn more: Around the Kampfire
30. Snail Trail to Time
Each clock features a spiral shell design, where the numbers follow the curve, representing an analog clock face.
Students will look at the position of the hour and minute hands on each snail clock and then write the correct time in a space provided beneath or next to each clock.
Learn more: Frog and Fairies
31. Telling Time Bingo Cards
Each bingo card contains a grid filled with different times, represented by either clock faces or digital times. The teacher or game leader calls out specific times, and students must find and mark the matching time on their bingo cards.
Learn more: Edu Games
32. Rainy Day Time Worksheets
Each worksheet features clouds and raindrops with clock faces, either analog or digital. Students must write the correct time under each cloud or match raindrops displaying different times to the corresponding clock.
Learn more: 123 Homeschool 4me
33. Building Blocks Time Matching Activity
Each block displays either a time in digital format or an analog clock face. Students match pairs by stacking or connecting the blocks with corresponding times.
Learn more: Education
34. Clock on A Table
Movable clock hands, made from paper or cardboard, can be placed in the center and adjusted to different times. Students can take turns setting the clock to match specific times called out by the teacher or working in pairs to quiz each other.
Learn more: Pinterest/Kasey Pletcher
35. Floor Clock Fun
By arranging numbers in a circular formation directly on the carpet with tapes, sticky notes, or small signs, students create an oversized clock face.
They can act as the clock hands, physically moving to different hour and minute positions based on times given by the teacher, or use props to represent the hands.
Learn more: Pinterest/Gianel Santana