Engaging Paper Plate Clock Craft: Fun with Time
This term, our focus has been on the concept of time. From learning the days of the week to understanding morning, afternoon, and evening, we have explored various aspects related to time. As we transition into formal time, I want to share a quick and easy craft activity that will tune your students in: creating paper plate clocks!
Start by having your students cut out all the numbers and clock hands. Instruct them to paste the numbers 12, 6, 3, and 9 first, ensuring correct spacing. Once these numbers are in place, students can arrange the remaining numbers in their proper positions.
After all the numbers are correctly positioned, encourage your students to decorate their clocks. If using split pins, it’s best for an adult to assist in attaching them. The advantage of split pins is that the clock hands can be moved to show different times. Alternatively, if you prefer, students can glue the clock hands down to represent their favourite o’clock time. During our activity, we shared our clocks, our favourite time, and an activity we typically do at that time. When using split pins, challenge your students to create different times on their clocks and relate them to events throughout the day.
You can download the template by clicking here!
Activities for students to engage with their paper clock:
- Allow students to practice telling time using the paper clock. Provide simple time prompts, such as “Draw the clock hands to show 3 o’clock” or “Point to where the hour hand would be at 2 o’clock.” This activity reinforces basic time-telling skills in a hands-on and interactive way.
- Time Matching Game: Create a time-matching game using cards with different times written on them and corresponding clock faces. Students can use their paper clocks to match the written time with the correct clock face. This activity helps develop time recognition and reinforces the correlation between digital and analog time representations.
- Daily Schedule Display: Create a daily classroom schedule with different daily activities. Use the paper clock to show the corresponding times for each activity. Invite students to update the clock hands as the day progresses, allowing them to visually understand the concept of time passing and associating specific activities with certain times.
- Time Scavenger Hunt: Hide various objects around the classroom and assign each object a specific time. Students use their paper clocks to search for the objects at the designated times. This activity combines movement and time awareness, making it engaging and interactive for young learners.
- Time Storytelling: Choose a short story or picture book involving different events. As you read the story aloud, pause at key moments and have students set their paper clocks to reflect the time mentioned in the story. This activity connects storytelling with time concepts, enhancing comprehension and time visualization skills.
I hope you and your students enjoy creating these clocks together! It’s a fantastic way to engage them in understanding time while also unleashing their creativity. Wishing you a wonderful week filled with exciting learning experiences!
Happy learning, and remember, together, we can teach big and change the world!
