Fun Telling The Time Lesson Plan For Kids

In this lesson plan on telling the time in English, students will practice asking and answering “What time is it?” while singing a fun song, playing fun games, and completing a worksheet. This lesson on telling the time is ideal for kids and beginner English language learners and is complete with all the resources you need. Let’s get started.

Telling The Time Lesson Plan

1. Warm Up

Kids love to sing and dance and so what better way to start your lesson on telling the time than singing a fun song? There are many esl songs for teaching time, but we particularly like this song by Maple Leaf Learning as it gives students lots of chances to chant and repeat the time in English.

Have students listen to the song one time and then ask them if they can guess what they are going to learn that day. Next, it’s time to teach the students the song lyrics and the dance moves to the song. Feel free to create your own dance moves, but here are some suggestions.

While singing the lyrics “What time is it?” have students point and tap on their wrists as if they are tapping a wristwatch. And while singing the time (“It’s one o’clock.”, “It’s two o’clock.”, etc) have students act as a clock and use their left arm as the big hand of the clock and their right arm as the small hand. As they sing the different times, students can move their right arm to show the correct time. After practicing a few times it’s time to practice the lesson’s key expressions.

2. Introduce Key Expressions

Show these time flashcards to students and have them repeat the time after you. Then, show each flashcard to the students one by one while asking them “What time is it?” and have them say each time on their own. Once students have practiced enough, it’s time to play a fun flashcard game.

Shuffle the time flashcards and then choose one but don’t show the students what it is. Then ask them “What time is it?” and have them raise their hands to guess what time flashcard you are holding. Students should guess by making a full sentence (i.e. “It’s three o’clock.”, “It’s six o’clock.”, etc).

When a student guesses correctly, have that student come to the front of the class to choose the next card. Then that student should ask the class “What time is it?” and again the other students should try to guess what time flashcard he/she is holding.

3. Telling The Time Board Game

Next, it’s time to play a fun board game in which students will have plenty of opportunities to ask and answer “What time is it?”. Put students into pairs, download and print this board game, and then give one to each pair of students. Each pair of students will also need one pencil and one paper clip to create the ‘spinner’.

One student should place the paper clip in the center of the board game and then place the tip of the pencil in the middle of the paper clip. Then, using their finger, they should flick the paper clip to make it spin. The students should then have a dialogue based on the picture that the spinner landed on. For example, one student would ask “What time is it?” and the other student would answer “It’s (five) o’clock.”.

After completing the dialogue, the student who spun the paper clip can write down their points in the box provided (the points can be found around the center dot). Next, it’s the other student’s turn to spin. After 5 or 10 minutes, stop the game and the student with the most points is the winner.

4. Telling The Time Worksheet

Next, to reinforce what students have learned so far, they will complete a telling the time worksheet. Download and print this worksheet and give one to each student. To complete the worksheet, students should read the digital time and then draw the hands on the analog clock so that it displays the correct time. Then, students should write the time on the line below. For early finishers, or higher level students, you can provide more telling the time worksheets.

5. Telling The Time Bingo

This last activity is a fun bingo game for practicing telling the time in English. Download and print this bingo worksheet and give one to each student. There are 9 blank clocks and students should draw the hands on each clock to display a time between 1 o’clock and 12 o’clock. Once all students have completed their clocks, the game can begin.

Have students call out “What time is it?” and then answer with a time between 1 o’clock and 12 o’clock. Students should then check their bingo sheets and if they have that time they should draw an X through that clock. The first student to make one or two lines of bingo is the winner.

TIP: Have students use a pencil so that after each game they can erase the bingo worksheet and play again.

Related Resources

Thanks for reading. I hope you found this telling the time lesson plan useful. For more free resources for teaching telling the time in English, check out these related resources:

Telling The Time PowerPoint
Telling The Time Game
Telling The Time Quiz
Telling The Time Worksheets
Telling The Time Flashcards And Board Games