Learn to Tell the Time: A Step-by-Step Workbook for Kids

This is a step-by-step workbook designed for children aged 5 to 8 who are learning to tell the time, and for the parent who is teaching them. It does not assume your child knows anything about clocks, and it does not assume you have ever taught. It starts with the numbers on a clock face and ends with reading any clock to the minute.

Most telling-time packs are pages of clocks to fill in. This one teaches first. Each of the 28 lessons is two pages that face each other: a teaching page that explains one small idea to your child in plain sentences, with a picture and a worked example, and a practice page for that idea alone.

How a lesson works (about 15 minutes)

1. You read the teaching page aloud: the idea, one or two worked examples shown step by step, and a "Watch out!" box that shows the mistake most children make.
2. "Do it with me": you do the first row of the practice page together. The first step is already done or shaded.
3. "Now you try": your child works alone.
4. "Quick check": the last row, with no help. It tells you whether to go on tomorrow or repeat the lesson.
5. A strip at the bottom of every teaching page tells you what to say and do, what to watch for, how to tell your child has it, and what to do if not yet.

Page 4 shows a finished practice page, with a mistake crossed out and fixed, so you can see what you are aiming for before you start.

What it teaches, in this order

• Unit 1: the clock face, the two hands and which is which, o'clock
• Unit 2: half past, and how to tell the hour when the short hand sits between two numbers
• Unit 3: quarter past and quarter to
• Unit 4: counting the minutes by fives, and times such as 4:10 and 4:50
• Unit 5: every minute, and saying a time two ways (4:50 and 10 minutes to 5)
• Unit 6: digital clocks, matching them to clocks with hands, a.m. and p.m., the order of a day
• Unit 7: what time it will be later, and how long something takes
• Unit 8: days of the week, months of the year and reading a calendar page

The four classic mistakes, taught head-on

• Mixing up the two hands (Lesson 2).
• Reading the wrong hour when the short hand is between two numbers. On every clock in this book the short hand is drawn where a real clock puts it: at half past it is halfway to the next number. Lesson 6 practices nothing else.
• Reading the number the long hand points to as the minutes. The 3 means 15 (Lesson 11).
• Naming the wrong hour with "quarter to" (Lesson 9).

What is inside (108 pages)

• Start here, how a lesson works and a finished example page (3 pages).
• A "Where to start" page, so a child who can already tell some times can begin partway through.
• 28 lessons (56 pages): a teaching page and a practice page each.
• 7 review blocks (28 pages): after each unit from Unit 2 on, two pages of extra practice, a mixed review of everything so far and a check-up with a score.
• A cut-out clock with hands that move, and a page on how to make it with a paper fastener or a pin and a pencil eraser (an adult step).
• 48 time cards: 24 clocks and the 24 matching times in digits and words, in four sets that follow the lessons.
• 3 games: Match up, Set the clock, and Clock bingo with two boards.
• A progress chart and a certificate.
• A full answer key (6 pages), with a small clock for every "draw the hands" question. For each check-up question the key names the lesson to repeat.

There are 827 questions in all.

What you download

• The whole book in color, US Letter (8.5 x 11 in).
• The whole book in color, A4 (210 x 297 mm).
• The progress chart as a fillable PDF, to check off lessons and type check-up scores on a computer.
• A print pack (ZIP): the whole book in a low-ink black and white edition in both paper sizes, the cut-out pages on their own (clock, hands, time cards, bingo boards) in both sizes, the answer key on its own in both sizes, and a one-page START-HERE.

Good to know

• You need a printer, a pencil, scissors, glue, a piece of thin cardboard such as a cereal box, and one paper fastener or a pin and a pencil eraser.
• The book uses the 12-hour clock with a.m. and p.m. It does not teach seconds, the 24-hour clock or Roman numerals.
• It says "quarter past" and "quarter to". If your family says "quarter after" or "quarter till", use your own words when you read aloud.
• For the two 12 o'clocks it says noon and midnight, following the US National Institute of Standards and Technology.
• The teaching order follows the order in which US and English school standards introduce telling time. It prints no standards codes.
• Every answer was worked out twice: once when the question was made, and again by a separate check that reads each question back from the finished page and measures the angles of the hands on every clock. The book is not built if any answer differs.
• This book teaches and gives practice. It makes no promise about how quickly a child will learn.
• The low-ink edition prints clean in black and white: the hour hand is short and thick, the minute hand long and thin.
• Children's pages use US spelling. Families in the UK, Canada and Australia can use every page.
• For your own children or your own class. Please do not share or resell the files.
• The text was written with AI assistance. All pictures are drawn by a program written for this book. No AI image tools were used.
• This is a digital download. Nothing is mailed to you, and you need a printer or a print shop.