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Telling the Time: Fix the Clocks of Time Town with Koo

Telling the Time: Fix the Clocks of Time Town with Koo

Learn all about telling the time: read clocks to five minutes, quarter past and quarter to, draw the hands and compare how long things take.

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What you'll learn

  • Tell the short hour hand apart from the long minute hand
  • Read quarter past, half past and quarter to on an analogue clock
  • Count in fives to tell and write the time to five minutes
  • Draw both hands, placing the hour hand between the right numbers
  • Know an hour has 60 minutes and a day has 24 hours
  • Find, compare and order how long different activities take

Chapter by chapter

  1. Quarter past, half past and quarter to Free to try

    Year 2 maths · 1

  2. Minutes past the hour: counting in fives

    Year 2 maths · 1 Year 2 maths · 2

  3. Minutes to the hour

    Year 2 maths · 1

  4. Draw the hands on a clock

    Year 2 maths · 1

  5. 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day

    Year 2 maths · 2

  6. Compare and order lengths of time

    Year 2 maths · 3 Year 2 maths · 2

  7. Time Town challenge (10 questions)

What the chapters cover in the national curriculum in England:

  1. Year 2 maths: Tell and write the time to five minutes, including quarter past/to the hour and draw the hands on a clock face to show these times
  2. Year 2 maths: Know the number of minutes in an hour and the number of hours in a day
  3. Year 2 maths: Compare and sequence intervals of time

About this adventure

Telling the Time is an interactive maths game that teaches children aged 6–8 to read and write the time to five minutes, draw the hands on a clock and compare lengths of time, following Year 2 of the national curriculum in England.

Koo the cuckoo guides each step out loud on a cuckoo clock in Time Town. Children drag the long minute hand and watch the short hour hand creep along, count round the clock in fives, build written times such as "25 to 9" from word tiles and type answers on a number pad.

They meet the key ideas of the 'past' side and the 'to' side of the clock face, why the hour hand sits between two numbers, and duration, meaning how long something takes. Hints respond to common slips, such as saying "4 past" instead of "20 past".

Questions and answers

How do you teach a child to tell the time to five minutes?

Start by counting round the clock in fives, because each number on the clock face stands for 5 minutes. Once a child can count from the 12 to wherever the minute hand points, they can say times such as 20 past 4 or 25 to 9.

What is the difference between quarter past and quarter to?

Quarter past means 15 minutes after the hour, with the minute hand pointing to the 3. Quarter to means 15 minutes before the next hour, with the minute hand on the 9 and the hour hand nearly at the next number.

How many minutes are in an hour and how many hours are in a day?

There are 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day. The minute hand goes all the way round the clock once every hour, while the hour hand goes round twice a day: from midnight to midday, then from midday to midnight.

What age should children learn to tell the time?

In England, children learn o'clock and half past in Year 1 (ages 5–6) and telling the time to five minutes in Year 2 (ages 6–7). This game is made for ages 6–8, so it also suits older children who need a refresher.

What does the Time Town game include and how long does it take?

It has six guided chapters and a 10-question challenge, taking about 50 minutes to play everything. Every instruction is read aloud, children answer by dragging clock hands, tapping, building written times and typing numbers, and they can pick any chapter from the map.

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