Digital clocks are everywhere — on ovens, microwaves, phones, cars and car parks. Year 1 explorers learn to read them: the number before the two dots is the hour, and the numbers after the two dots are the minutes.
What your child will learn
- Find the hour and the minutes on a digital clock
- Read :00 and :30 times on a digital clock, such as 6:00 and 6:30
- Match a digital time to the same time on a clock face
- Say where the minute hand would point on a clock face
Hour, two dots, minutes
A digital clock shows the time as numbers. 7:00 means 7 hours and no minutes. 7:30 means 30 minutes past 7. The minutes always have two digits, so “no minutes” shows as 00.
Two kinds of clock, one time
Linking the two kinds of clock builds real understanding: :00 on a digital clock means the minute hand points at 12, and :30 means it points at 6.
Example questions
Here are a few questions like the ones in the first quest. Can you solve them?
1. Which number on this clock tells us the hour?
Show answer
Answer: 7. On a digital clock the hour comes first, before the two dots. The minutes come after them. So the hour is 7.
2. Which digital time matches this clock?
- 6:00
- 6:12
- 7:00
- 6:30
Show answer
Answer: 6:00. The long minute hand points straight up at 12 — no minutes yet — and the short hour hand points at 6. It is 6:00.
3. On a clock face, which number would the long minute hand point at?
- 12
- 8
- 6
- 3
Show answer
Answer: 12. When the minutes are :00, the minute hand points straight up at 12.
Tips for grown-ups
- Read the oven or microwave clock together when you are cooking.
- Ask “What’s the hour? How many minutes?” whenever you see a digital clock.