TIME TELLING AND TIME AWARENESS

These days many many children have difficulty in telling the time. It is important that children learn to tell and to appreciate time as early in life as possible. One of the things heading to confusion is the fact that we have both digital and analogue time telling devices.

I would strongly suggest having a decent analog clock in each classroom. If the school doesn’t supply clocks, a quite readable analog can be purchased from any supermarket for no more than about six or seven dollars. The clock would need to be sufficient to read from the back of the classroom. The numbers ‘1’ to ’12’ are preferable to those with other markers denoting five-minute intervals.

While more expensive I would also suggest a digital clock to be displayed somewhere in the room. That will help students when it comes to comparisons between analogue and digital time telling.

No device is of any use if it is ignored! To that end, reference to time by teachers is important. There are many games available that help students when it comes to time telling. Another strategy may be for teachers to draw attention to the clock(s) as the day reaches towards milestones. That may be recess, lunchtime, home time, the start of art, physical education lessons and so on. I believe that after a period of time children will begin to learn to avert their eyes toward clocks and possibly to remind the teacher about what is coming up and what is happening next.

Time telling is very much a part of functional literacy. People who don’t know how to tell the time can become quite lost.

To appreciate time quotients it may help for teachers to tell students undertaking activities at what time that lesson is due to finish. They then begin to understand how long they have to go. This can help students organise their time and to work out how much should have been completed by the time a particular period in lapses.

A useful activity is to give children blank clock faces and ask them by inserting minute and hour hands, to show particular times dictated in a mental exercise. Variation on this might be to ask students to show their favourite time of the day and why it is that this is a highlight time.

To develop exercises drawing attention to both analogue and digital time telling is a way of having students understand both methodologies.

This might sound like an exercise that is never ending. However children will become time literate with practice and importantly have an understanding of what time means. Time management is an issue that often challenges people, including adults. To help students gain an understanding and appreciation of time and why it is important cannot be overstated.