Year 3 Teaching Sequence summer M5 – Telling the time and calculating intervals (three days)
Prerequisites:
 Read the time on a 12-hour digital clock and to the nearest 5 minutes on an analogue clock (see teaching sequence M4
and oral and mental starter bank M5)
 Begin to calculate time intervals in hours and minutes (see teaching sequence M4)
 Count on in fives (see oral and mental starter bank M5)
 Know pairs of multiples of 5 with a total of 60, half and quarters of 60 (see oral and mental starter bank M5)
Overview of progression:
Children revise the equivalent digital and analogue ways of recording times between the half hour and next hour (minutes
to). Intervals are found between times, including bridging the hour (e.g. calculating the time difference between 2:50 and
3:15) using analogue clocks to help. Chn work together to use a time line to find pairs of times 25 minutes apart.
Note that because of their experiences outside of school, many children may be more familiar with digital clocks than with
analogue clocks. Whilst many adults will imagine digital times on an analogue clock to find the differences between times
such as 2:50 and 3:15, some chn may use complements to 60 to find the difference. For this reason both images are used in
this sequence.
Watch out for children who think that 2:50 is equivalent to half past 2 as they are halving 100 rather than 60, and when
bridging the hour, find the complement to 100 instead of 60.
© Original teaching sequence copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
Y3 Maths TS_M5 – Sum – 3days
Objectives:
 Read the time on a 12-hour digital clock and to the nearest five minutes on an analogue clock
 Begin to calculate time intervals in hours and minutes

Find start or end times for a given time interval
Whole class
Group activities
Paired/indiv practice
Resources
Show a large geared analogue clock and set it to 3
o’clock. Move the hands by five minutes and say
together the analogue time shown, five past 3, ten past
3, quarter past 3…
Choose a child to set the time to half past nine. How
many minutes are in an hour? How many minutes in half
an hour? So what would half past nine look like on a
digital clock? Talk to a partner and write the digital
time on your whiteboards. Check that they have 9:30
on their boards. Move the hands on the large clock to
show 25 minutes to 10. How many minutes have
passed? What time is it now? How many minutes to go
before 10 o clock? How would this time look on a digital
clock? Look at the time on your boards, which digits
need to change, minutes or the hours or both?
Repeat moving the hands on five minutes until 5 to 10.
What will be the time 5 minutes later? How will this
look on the digital clock? Which digits change now?
Agree that the no. of hours will now change.
Show chn the time ¼ to 6 on a geared clock. Work in
pairs, one to write the time in minutes to the hour and
one as you would see it on a digital clock.
Repeat, this time showing 5:35 and asking chn to swap
roles. Repeat, this item showing 5:55.
Repeat with other times between the half hour and
next hour.
Group of 4-5 children
Give chn pages from a TV guide and a
sheet of printed blank analogue clock
faces. Ask them to find any times
between half past the hour and the
next hour and to draw these times on
analogue clock faces. They write the
time in digital format above and in
minutes to the hour below.
Easier: Choose some times from the TV
guide. Use the ITP Tell time to show
the digital times and then reveal the
analogue equivalent. After some
practice, see if chn can record the
analogue time on blank clock faces
before you reveal the analogue clock on
the ITP.
Chn draw analogue or digital
clocks and write the number of
minutes to the next hour (see
Activity sheet).
Harder: Also ask chn to choose
three digital times between
3:30 and 4:00 and to write
them in order.
 Large geared
analogue clock
 Clock
stamp/photoco
py of blank
analogue clock
faces
 TV guide
 ITP Tell time
 Activity sheet
(see resources)
© Original teaching sequence copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
Y3 Maths TS_M5 – Sum – 3days
Give each pair a card/plastic clock. Show me ¼ to 5.
What time will it be 15 minutes later? What time will it
be 20 minutes later than ¼ to 5? Show me. Discuss how
15 minutes later is 5 o’clock and another five minutes
later is 5 past 5.
Show me 10 to 6. What time will it be 20 minuets
later? How did you work it out?
Repeat starting with 'minutes to’ times and ask
children to find a time later than the next hour.
Ask one child to show 2:50 on a geared analogue clock
and another to show 3:15 on a second clock. We’re
going to work out how much time has passed between
these two times. Point to the first clock. How many
minutes to 3 o’clock? 10 minutes. And how many
minutes to ¼ past 3? 15 minutes, so 25 altogether.
If playtime starts at 10:45 and finishes at 11:05, how
long is playtime? Let’s work it out together. Ask one
child to show 10:45 on an analogue clock. How else can
we say this time? How many minutes until 11 o’clock?
Ask another child to show 11:05. How else can we say
this time? So how many minutes are there from 11
o’clock o 11:05? So there are 15 minutes between 10:45
and 11 o’clock and five minutes between 11 o’clock and
11:05, so how many minutes altogether? So playtime is
20 minutes long.
A bus leaves the library at 2:50. It arrives at the
swimming pool at 3:15. (Substitute suitable local
landmarks.) How long does it take? We’re going to draw
a time line, a bit like we draw a number line when
finding the difference between two numbers. Sketch a
line from 2:50 (writing library underneath) to 3:15
(writing swimming pool underneath). What o’clock time
Group of 4-5 children
Ring programmes in a TV guide which
start before one hour and finish after
the hour, e.g. start at 5:40 and finish
at 6:15. Ask chn to work in pairs to find
the length of each programme using
analogue clocks to help.
Harder: Ask chn to look for
programmes which last between 20 and
50 minutes.
Chn work in pairs to find out
how much time has lapsed
between given digital times (see
Activity sheet). They use
analogue clocks to help.
Easier: Chn's times on given on
analogue clocks.
 Card/plastic
clocks
 TV guides
 Activity sheets
of pairs of
clocks (see
resources)
Group of 4-5 children
What time does school start? And end?
Draft a time line to help, marking on
midday and together work out the
length of the school day.
Show children a class timetable, choose
a day and help them to mark the times
Give chn a sheet of time lines
from 2:30 to 3:30 marked in
multiples of five minutes (see
resources). They work in pairs
to find as many pairs of times
as they can with a difference of
25 minutes. The number of
 Class timetable
 Time lines (see
resources)
 Card/plastic
analogue clocks
© Original teaching sequence copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
Y3 Maths TS_M5 – Sum – 3days
is between these two times? Mark on 3:00 just before
half way. How many minutes is it from 2:50 to 3
o’clock? How do you know? How many minutes are in an
hour? So what do we add to 50 to make 60? Draw a hop
from 2:50 to 3:00 labelling it 10 minutes. And how
many minutes is it from 3 o’clock to 3:15? That’s the
easy bit! Draw a hop from 3:00 to 3:15 labelling it 15
minutes. So how long is the bus journey altogether?
Agree that it is 25 minutes.
Repeat with other times bridging the hour.
So we can use a time line or clock faces to find a
difference between two times.
on the time line and then to find the
length of each lesson, break, assembly
etc.
Easier: Use an analogue clock to help
children find the length of lessons,
assemblies and breaks in one day.
Harder: Challenge children to find the
total time spent in lessons, assemblies
and breaks respectively in a day.
timelines is not necessarily the
number of pairs of times, but
having multiple lines will give
chn more room to work.
Easier: Chn check their answer
using an analogue clock.
Harder: Tell chn that a bus
leaves after 2:30 and arrives
before 3:30. The journey is 25
minutes long. They draft their
own timelines to find as many
pairs of start and finish times
as they can.
© Original teaching sequence copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
Y3 Maths TS_M5 – Sum – 3days