Time to Tell

Random children, telling the time, at random times...

Photo by MattysFlicks

Telling time is the topic of the moment in my Year 3 class. The process of teaching modern time is rather quick, but how quickly are the children able to tell it!? How can we assess their ability, in real... time?

I wanted to have random times throughout the day where randomly selected child had to tell the time.

At first I thought I'd set alarms at various points in the day, but that seemed a little, well, time-consuming. Then I figured, there must be a 'random' alarm type app or website available somewhere.

In comes Washington Mindfulness Community and their 'Mindfulness Bell'. (Thank you to the creators!) It allows you to set a time range between which a bell will randomly ring. When it does sound there is a short ring almost immediately followed by another extended resonating ring. I found that the first bell was a good cue to select a random child, (I have lollipop sticks with their names on) and the second one was the moment that they must tell the time, before it ended. 

"Spontaneity has its time and its place."

Arthur Frank Burns

At first, even those who could tell the time rather easily, were phased by the pressure to answer quickly. Throughout the day though, I noticed they were each looking at the clock more often and mentally practising, taking the time to be ready for that random moment the bell might ring next. 

The children love it and I can see this tool coming in useful in lots of other ways! Time will tell...