Great Interactive Telling Time Games and Clocks

Snapdragon Tell the Time is a delightful game from BBC Schools. Move the hands on the analog clock to match the time words. Time is in 1-hour increments: "one o'clock", "seven o'clock", etc. When your child gets to the correct time, the clock chimes and Snapdragon says the time in English and Welsh.

The clock's hands simulate the movement of a real clock's hands. Using that visual clue, I've asked kids to tell me the fastest way to get to the time, moving forwards or backwards. So we practice the vocabulary for clockwise and counterclockwise.

I'm a huge fan of BBC Schools websites in Great Britain, and they have wonderful interactives for kids in Maths (Math) and Literacy (Language Arts).

Another British site, James Barrett's ICT Games, offers more beginner practice in reading clock words and telling time. In Hickory Dickory Clock you select the analog clock with the correct time and your mouse will get to eat some cheese. If you guess wrong, the cat will try to catch your mouse until you get the right answer!

This activity provides practice in reading an analog clock in 15-minute intervals, using the concepts of half past, quarter to and quarter past. Sections of the clocks are also labeled with "past" and "to" which give children visual clues to help them pick the right clock.

Clockworks is another fantastic game from BBC Schools. Children practice telling time by helping Max and Molly fix tower clocks. There are three levels:

Medium - Select the digital clock that matches the analog clock face. Time is in 1-hour increments. Kids will also be asked to select the digital time that equals the clock face + what time it will be in X hours.

Hard - Select the digital clock that matches the analog clock face in 30-minute increments. Also pick the digital clock that equals the clock face + what time it will be in X hours and 30 minutes.

Really Hard - Time is in 15-minute increments. Select the phrase below the analog clock that equals the clock face + what time it will be in X hours and 15 minutes. This interactive provides practice with using words such as "half past," "quarter to" and "quarter after".

All of this and - if you must use them - printable worksheets for each level of difficulty.

Once kids learn to tell time, they need practice reading clocks to increase their speed. Mr. Nussbaum's Bedtime Bandits provides this kind of practice.

In this multi-level game, kids must pick the correct analog clock from among several to match a digital time. The beginning level presents clocks in 1-hour increments. At each level, the game becomes a little more difficult, with 30-minute, 10-minute, and 5-minute increments. Later levels require kids to calculate lapsed time. For instance, 1 hour and 20 minutes after 11:30, or 3 hours before 12:00.

My kids enjoyed the scramble to match all the clocks before they fell on the bedroom floor and BEDTIME - game over. A premium version of this game, along with many more, is available on the website for $10 a year to parents and $30 a year to teachers.

Here's another game to help kids improve their telling time speed. Stop the Clock, from Oswego City School District in New York, is great for improving speed. It is a series of interactive time telling games, where kids match digital times to analog clocks. You drag the five digital times to the correct analog clocks, then press STOP THE CLOCK to record your time.

Stop the Clock R provides practice matching 1-hour (o'clock) words to analog clocks.
Stop the Clock 1 provides practice telling time in 1/2 hour increments.
Stop the Clock 2 provides practice telling time in 15 minute increments.
Stop the Clock 3 provides practice telling time in 5 minute increments.
Stop the Clock 4 provides practice telling time in 1 minute increments.
Stop the Clock 5 provides practice telling military or 24-hour time in 1 minute increments.

I used these interactives in computer math centers that my 2nd grade students rotate through during the day. They recorded their personal best time for each activity in their math notebooks. We recognized the students who had a new personal best. (Please avoid competition between students - it's very discouraging for some children.)

Time calculation takes on a new dimension at Numbernut.com Dates and Times. This websites provides more than a dozen interactives to practice telling time, calculating lapsed time and converting time to days, weeks and months.

Each interactive provides ten questions where kids pick from several answer choices and get a smiley face for each correct answer. The interactives can be played over and over, with new questions asked each time.

Scroll to the bottom of the Numbernut.com Dates and Times web page to see all of the interactives.

For teachers, Time-for-Time has an outstanding Teaching Clock. The analog clock has large numbers, a sweeping second hand, an AM/PM indicator, and an option to display the digital time. What I really like about this clock are the visual clues to the time of day as a sun progresses in the background and descends into moonlit night.

Time-for-Time has many other teaching time resources. They include a printable game for children, lesson plans, and customizable telling time worksheets. There are also displays of current time clocks from across the U.S. and around the world.

For all of you on the go with your Apple mobile device, download the free ClockMaster app on iTunes. MathTappers designed this game for kids learning hours and minutes to help them become fluent on digital and analog clocks. It also keeps track of the child's progress in mastering time-telling skills.

The app was designed by educators and researchers, who created a series of them to teach one discrete skill at a time.