3rd grade · Math · Unit 7 of 16
Time
Clocks, minutes and calendars
What your child practices
Telling time on an analog clock, working out start and end times, and knowing how seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years relate.
New York State Learning Standards learning standard: NY-3.MD.1 · telling time to the nearest minute and solving time-interval problems
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- The short hand shows the hour. The long hand shows the minutes.
- Each number on the clock is 5 minutes.
- Long hand on 6 means 30 minutes past.
Example: The short hand is just past the 3 and the long hand is on the 6. What time is it? Long hand on 6: 30 minutes. Short hand just past 3: the hour is 3. Answer: 3:30
Time in New York
In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 7 of 16 in 3rd grade Math, after Measuring and before Numbers to 10,000.
Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
How many minutes after 8 o'clock is it?
answer boxminutes
45 minutes
Hint: Start at the 12. Count by 5s to where the long hand points: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45.
Question 2
What time does the clock show?
- 3:50
- 10:10
- 2:10
- 2:50
2:50
Hint: The short red hand shows the hour. The long blue hand shows the minutes. The short hand has gone past 2 but hasn't reached 3 yet, so the hour is still 2. Count by 5s from the 12 to the long hand: 50 minutes. It's 2:50.
Question 3
Art class starts at 5:00 and ends at 5:45. How long is it?
Starts Ends 5:00 5:45 - 1 hour and 45 minutes
- 30 minutes
- 1 hour and 15 minutes
- 45 minutes
45 minutes
Hint: Count on 45 minutes from 5:00: 5:45.
Question 4
The movie starts at 11:30 and lasts 1 hour. What time does it end?
- 12:30
- 1:30
- 1:00
- 12:15
12:30
Hint: From 11:30, 30 minutes gets you to 12:00. Then 30 minutes more is 12:30.
Question 5
Which unit would you use to measure how old a grandparent is?
👵- weeks
- years
- hours
years
Hint: Think about how long it really takes. Seconds are very short, minutes are a bit longer, hours are long, and years are very, very long.
Question 6
How many minutes are in a quarter of an hour?
⏳answer box
15
Hint: 1 hour is 60 minutes. A quarter is 1 of 4 equal parts: 15 minutes.