Ticktock Clock Fun

Ticktock Clock Fun
Games for Telling Time

By Mackie Rhodes

Hickory Tells Time!
Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse who ran up the clock, can tell time! Let kids show off their time-telling skills when they play Hickory in this partner game. Before you begin, copy the Reproducible. Have students cut out the mouse and clock patterns, then color and decorate them as they wish. Laminate all the pieces. Attach the hands to clock faces with brad fasteners, then add a craft stick to each mouse cut-out to make Hickory puppets. Pair children, designating one as Hickory, and the other as the Time Setter. At a signal, the Time Setter moves the clock hands around continuously until Hickory calls "Time!" The Time Setter "freezes" the clock, setting the time to the nearest hour or half-hour. Hickory then names the time on the clock, and the Time Setter verifies whether or not Hickory is correct. Encourage children to switch roles each round.

Human Clock Relay
For this game that helps students learn five-minute increments, you'll need two teams to make human clocks. For each clock, tape a circle on the floor and cut out two poster-board hands. Write each clock number on a separate sheet of poster-board. Appoint two students to captain each team, one each for the minute hands and the hour hands. To set up the clocks, give the 12, 3, 6, and 9 to different children. Have each one—holding up his or her number—stand at the corresponding position on the group's clock. Additional team members can fill in remaining clock numbers as desired. When the clocks are arranged, begin the relay. To play, call out a time representing a five-minute increment. Have each team discuss and agree on where to point the hands to show the designated time. The captains then "set" the clocks and return to the outside of the circle. The first team to correctly set its clock wins that round. For more advanced learners, you can present simple addition or subtraction problems for teams to solve before setting their clocks.

Speedy Time Sequences
Challenge children with this race to sequence digital and analog clock cards into the proper chronological order. First, copy the Reproducible cards and fill in times on both types of clocks. Give students each five cards, face down. At a signal, players flip over their cards, then sequence them from A.M. to P.M. times. Let each player shout an alarm clock "ring" when he or she finishes. At the end of each round, the class checks each child's work, and corrects any out-of-sequence cards.

Quarter-Hour Hot Potato
Put a kitchen timer inside a tiny, lidded box along with a face-up analog clock card, copied from the Reproducible. Draw hands on the card to set the time to the quarter hour, then write out the time in plain language a few different ways on the back of the card. For example, if the hour hand is drawn at 12, and the minute hand at 3, you could write both a quarter after twelve and twelve fifteen. To play, set the timer, then have students pass the "potato" around a circle. When the alarm goes off, the child with the box opens it, names the time on the card, then checks his or her answer by reading the back of the card aloud.

Mackie Rhodes is the author of two recent professional books for teachers, Teaching With Favorite Kevin Henkes Books (Scholastic Inc, 2002) and Teaching With Favorite Patricia Polacco Books (Scholastic Inc., 2002). This article was originally published in the September 2002 issue of Instructor.

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