Reading Time to the Hour on a Clock with Hands

Look for this idea outside of your lessons. Meetings, meals, and church services are usually set on the hour, so this is the reading people use most. This is worth learning because most daily appointments are set on the hour.

Watch for it today, and when you spot it, tell someone what you noticed and how you knew. Ask yourself where else the same idea might be hiding, then go and look.

Let us look at this together. When the minute hand points straight up at the twelve, the time is exactly on the hour. Then read the number the hour hand points to. Hour hand on three, minute hand on twelve, means three o’clock.

Practice with a toy clock: set the minute hand up and move the hour hand around, reading each hour aloud. Straight up minute hand always means o’clock, with no minutes past.

Watch out for the hour hand between numbers. If it sits between four and five while the minute hand points straight up, look again, because that combination should not happen at a true o’clock time. Say it out loud once, and then try it with real objects.