Primary 1 · Mathematics
P1 time
The minute hand on 4 does not mean 4 minutes. A child who reads 3.20 as 3.04 has read the clock correctly, just in hours. A few evenings of counting in fives fixes it.
- Level
- P1
- Usually taught
- Term 4
- Covers
- 1 concept
What changes at P1
Primary 1 tells the time to 5 minutes on a clock face, not just o'clock and half past. Your child reads the hour hand and the minute hand, writes the time the Singapore way (3.20), and adds a.m. or p.m. from the story.
The numbers on a clock face do two jobs. For the hour hand they are hours. For the minute hand each one stands for 5 minutes, and nothing on the face says so.
The sentence that costs the mark
The hour hand is just past 3 and the minute hand points to 4. What time is it?
What the working usually does
minute hand on 4:reads the 4=3.04
Reads the hour correctly, then takes the 4 as 4 minutes.
What the question asked
minute hand on 4:counts in fives=3.20
Counts 5, 10, 15, 20 from the 12 to the 4.
The hour is right, and "the hand is on 4" is true. But the numbers on a clock are hour numbers, and nothing on the face says the minutes go up in fives. Reading the 4 feels like reading the clock.
| Clock | Time |
|---|---|
| Clock | read from the hands |
The same question, worked properly
Hour hand first
just past 3The short hand has passed 3 but not reached 4, so the time is 3-something.
Count the minute hand in fives
5, 10, 15, 20This is the step that fails. Each number on the face is 5 minutes. Count one five per number from the 12 to the 4. Reading "4" as 4 minutes is how 3.04 appears.
Say the time
20 minutes past 3, written 3.20Add a.m. or p.m. from the story: in the afternoon, this is 3.20 p.m.
How can you tell it has clicked?
Set a clock to 20 minutes past 3 and ask the time. If the answer is 3.04, the minute hand is being read like the hour hand.
Ask your child to count the minute hand round aloud: 5, 10, 15, 20. A child who counts in fives from the 12, rather than reading the number, has it. Try 3.50 as well, where the hour hand has nearly reached 4 and often gets read as 4.50.
One thing to try tonight
Point to each number on a real clock and say its minutes together: 1 is 5, 2 is 10, 3 is 15, all the way round to 12, which is 60.
Do it for a few evenings running. Once the fives are automatic, the minute hand stops being read as the number it points to.
What your child will meet in this topic
- Telling Time
Most Singapore schools introduce this in Term 4, though schools do differ by a term either way. If your child’s school runs a different order, you can set it in the schedule on your dashboard.
What it leads to
P2 reads the minute hand to the exact minute and converts between hours and minutes. Counting in fives first, then on in ones, is how the exact minute is found.
Durations grow from here too: whole and half hours at P1, longer ones in P2 and P3. All of them start from reading the clock face correctly.
The same topic in other years
It comes back each year and gets harder, so it helps to see what came before and what is coming.
More in Primary 1
Other topics in the same year, so you can see what sits either side of this one.
See how your child is doing on this topic
StudyLah marks each step separately, so you can see whether it was the setup or the arithmetic that cost the mark.