For parents
Teaching the clock: o’clock and half past
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Start with two clock settings: a whole hour and half an hour after it. At 3:30, the long hand points to 6 and the short hand sits halfway between 3 and 4. We call this half past three: three has passed, but four has not arrived.
Make a face and two different hands
Draw a circle on paper. Put 12 at the top, 6 at the bottom, 3 on the right and 9 on the left, then fill in the other numbers at equal intervals. Cut out a short hour hand and a longer minute hand. Place both ends at the centre; they do not need a pin. An adult can help with cutting. Different colours are useful, but identify the hands by length too.
Read a whole hour: 3:00
Point the short hand at 3 and the long hand at 12. The short hand tells the hour; the long hand at the top means zero minutes after the whole hour here. Say three o’clock and write 3:00. Try another setting: short hand at 8, long hand at 12 means 8:00. Ask your child to explain both hands instead of guessing from one.
Move from 3:00 to 3:30
Move the long hand clockwise from 12, past 1, 2 and 3, until it reaches 6. This is half a turn, or 30 minutes. At the same time, move the short hand from 3 to halfway between 3 and 4. Read 3:30 as three thirty or half past three. The short hand is no longer exactly on 3 and has not yet reached 4. With separate paper hands, remember to move both yourself.
Why does 6 mean thirty minutes?
A full turn of the minute hand takes 60 minutes. Each of the twelve equal spaces is five minutes. The six spaces from 12 to 6 give 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Initially, keep just two minute-hand positions in focus: 12 means :00 and 6 means :30. The NCETM resource below connects half a turn of the minute hand with half an hour.
Play a pretend timetable game
Draw three stops: home, park and library. Give them pretend times of 3:00, 3:30 and 4:00. An adult reads a time card; the child sets the clock and moves a paper car to that stop. Swap roles. From 3:30 to 4:00 is another half hour: the long hand returns to 12 and the short hand reaches 4. These are invented game times, not claims about real travel durations.
Four questions with answers
Short hand on 7, long hand on 12: 7:00, or seven o’clock. Long hand on 6, short hand halfway between 7 and 8: 7:30, or half past seven. Set 11:30: long hand on 6, short hand halfway between 11 and 12. What is half an hour after 11:30? 12:00, with both hands at 12, so one may hide the other. Give one question at a time and let your child explain or place the hands before checking.
Common mix-ups and further practice
If 3:30 is read as 4:30, ask which hour the short hand has already passed. If your child says 3:06, distinguish the face number from the number of minutes. A twelve-hour face alone cannot tell morning from afternoon; the situation supplies that context. Finish after a few examples without a timer. A parent can later choose the Clock book in Otto Math on iPhone or iPad. The first five routes in each book are free; further routes require Otto Plus.