TapLearn
Telling the Time: Fix the Tick-Tock Town Clock

Telling the Time: Fix the Tick-Tock Town Clock

Learn telling the time to the hour and half past, then set the hands yourself to help Tock the cuckoo fix the Tick-Tock Town clock.

Play now

What you'll learn

  • Which hand is the hour hand and which is the minute hand
  • That clock hands always move clockwise, from 12 to 1 to 2
  • Read o'clock times when the minute hand points to 12
  • Read half past times when the minute hand points to 6
  • Why the hour hand sits half way between numbers at half past
  • Draw both hands on a clock face to show a given time

Chapter by chapter

  1. Meet the clock: the hour hand and the minute hand Free to try

    Year 1 maths · 1

  2. Tell the time to the hour (o'clock)

    Year 1 maths · 1

  3. Tell the time to half past the hour

    Year 1 maths · 1

  4. Draw the hands to show o'clock and half past

    Year 1 maths · 1

  5. Clock Tower Challenge: tell and show the time (10 questions)

See every Maths chapter in the chapter library

What the chapters cover in the national curriculum in England:

  1. Year 1 maths: Tell the time to the hour and half past the hour and draw the hands on a clock face to show these times

About this adventure

Telling the Time is an interactive game that teaches children aged 5–7 to read o'clock and half past times on an analogue clock and to draw the hands to show them, as set out in the Year 1 maths curriculum.

Players help Tock the cuckoo put the town clock back together. They tap the numbers 1 to 12 into place, learn that the short hand is the hour hand and the long hand is the minute hand, and drag the hands round to see what happens. At half past, they watch the minute hand travel half way round to 6 while the hour hand creeps half way to the next number.

Friendly voice-over reads every line aloud, and wrong answers get a gentle hint about the exact mistake, such as swapping the hands or naming the next hour.

Questions and answers

How do you tell the time to the hour on a clock?

When the long minute hand points straight up to 12, it is something o'clock. The short hour hand then points to the hour, so if it points to 3, the time is 3 o'clock.

How do you read half past on a clock?

At half past, the long minute hand points down to 6 because it has gone half way round the clock. The short hour hand sits half way between two numbers, and you say the number it has just gone past, such as half past 3.

Why do children say the wrong hour at half past?

At half past, the hour hand is between two numbers, so children often name the next one, saying half past 4 for half past 3. The fix is to say the number the short hand has already gone past.

What age do children learn to tell the time?

In England, children learn to tell the time to the hour and half past in Year 1, when they are 5 or 6. This game suits ages 5 to 7 and works well as a Year 2 refresher too.

What is in the telling the time game and how long does it take?

The game has four chapters on clock hands, o'clock, half past and drawing the hands, followed by a 10-question Clock Tower Challenge. Playing everything takes about 35 minutes, and each chapter can be played on its own.

More to explore

See all