Tracking Time Together

Overview

Students explore how to calculate elapsed time in hours using analogue and digital clocks, a timeline, and familiar daily events. They apply their understanding to the “At what time did Amara finish painting her picture?” problem in Maths — No Problem! Textbook 4B, building on prior learning about reading clock faces and recording times.

Learning intentions

• WALT identify and read times shown on analogue and digital clocks.
• WALT use a timeline to calculate duration in hours.
• WALT explain how a start time and elapsed time can be used to find a finish time.
• WALT use appropriate time vocabulary: hours, minutes, digital, analogue, 24 hours, timeline and calculate.

Success criteria

• I can read and record a time from an analogue or digital clock.
• I can show the start time and the passing hours on a timeline.
• I can calculate and explain the time an event finishes.
• I can check whether my answer makes sense in a 24-hour day.

Curriculum links

• Measuring duration using appropriate time-based units and familiar events.
• Using benchmarks and estimation to reason about the duration of everyday activities.
• Developing mathematical thinking by representing, calculating, explaining and checking solutions.
• Mathsteasers: using higher-order questions to challenge learners and deepen understanding.

Lesson structure (30 minutes)

1. 0–4 min · Time hook. Teacher opens the time-travel hook slides with the question, “If painting begins at 10 o’clock and takes 3 hours, when will it finish?” Students make an estimate, discuss with a partner and explain how they know; accept both analogue and digital ways of recording the answer.

2. 4–9 min · Connect and model. Teacher revisits the difference between an analogue clock and a digital clock, then models a timeline from 9:00 to 12:00, counting each one-hour jump and recording the matching digital times. Students read the times aloud, identify the hours and minutes, and help complete the sentence: “The activity started at ___, lasted ___ hours, so it finished at ___.”

3. 9–14 min · Explore the problem. Teacher displays the textbook context from the Amara problem and timeline model and directs students to Maths — No Problem! Textbook 4B, pages 91–93. Students work with a partner to find when Amara finished painting, first estimating, then drawing or tracing a timeline and calculating the elapsed hours.

4. 14–22 min · Guided practice. Teacher demonstrates one solution from the text, deliberately comparing an analogue clock, a digital time and a timeline. Ask: “What stayed the same?” “Why did the hour change?” and “How could we check the answer?” Students complete the related questions on Workbook pages 63–64 independently, then compare one answer with a partner and correct or improve their explanation.

5. 22–27 min · Reasoning discussion. Teacher selects two different representations from student work and invites students to explain them. Use the discussion and checking slides to present short scenarios, such as “A game starts at 2:00 pm and lasts 4 hours” and “A walk begins at 11:00 am and lasts 2 hours.” Students show the finish time on a quick timeline or clock and justify whether the answer is reasonable.

6. 27–30 min · Exit check. Teacher displays the final reflection slide and asks students to answer on the back of their workbook: “A science activity starts at 1:00 pm and lasts 3 hours. At what time does it finish? Show a timeline and write the time digitally.” Students submit their response as they leave.

Resources

• Maths — No Problem! Textbook 4B, pages 91–93
• Maths — No Problem! Workbook 4B, pages 63–64
• the time, timeline and problem-solving slide deck
• Analogue clock demonstration model or classroom clock
• Mini analogue clocks, if available, for pairs
• Whiteboard and markers
• Pencils, rulers and erasers

Assessment

• Listen for students using “hours”, “minutes”, “analogue”, “digital” and “timeline” accurately during partner explanations.
• Check textbook and workbook work for a correct start time, one-hour jumps and finish time; question students who have counted the clock hands rather than elapsed hours.
• Use the exit check to identify whether students can calculate a finish time and represent their reasoning. Record students needing further support with reading analogue clocks or crossing midday.

Differentiation

• Support students by providing a prepared timeline with labelled hour points, a demonstration clock, and sentence frames: “It starts at ___.” “It lasts ___ hours.” “It finishes at ___ because ___.”
• Pair students strategically and allow them to move an analogue clock through each hour before recording the digital time.
• For students ready for challenge, ask them to solve the same problem using two representations and create a new start-time and duration problem for a partner.
• Support EAL learners by displaying picture-supported vocabulary and repeatedly linking the words “analogue” and “digital” to the same time. Provide enlarged clock faces and reduce the number of questions without reducing the reasoning demand.