Lantern Telling time Activity Cards

Here is another Ramadan Printable activity for you – Lantern Telling Time Activity Cards.

Do your children know how to tell time? I have a 5 and 6 year old who are struggling. I created this Ramadan themed telling time puzzles that can help teach children about reading clocks.

Children cannot understand the time difference in Ramadan

A few Ramadan ago, my daughter woke up just as I was going back to bed after Suhoor. The sun was already up but she didn’t understand why mom and dad were going to bed when they should be waking up instead.

I was sleepy, she was annoyed.

Ramadan can be a very confusing time for little children. They can’t tell time and it becomes very difficult for us adults to explain to them when it’s time to eat and when it’s time to sleep.

I created this puzzle to help my girls learn to recognize the minutes and hour hands. This printable activity helps them learn what time it is. We have been using it for two weeks now and Alhamdulillah both my girls can now tell time!

This isn’t a very big puzzle. It has only two pieces. One shows an analog clock and the other shows the time in digital format. They clip the right time together.

Before you give them the puzzle, it is very important that you explain to them how to tell time. I have included a page with a plain clock face with no hands. You can print this out and stick up somewhere in your house (preferably near a clock).

There are arrows at the bottom of the page for them to understand what the hour hand and minute hand look like. I found that it is really fun for kids if you give them two ice cream sticks (red and blue colored) so that they can compare the clock. Show them that red means hour and blue means minute. Help them practice with the red and blue sticks till they are used to seeing the hour hand and minute had seperately.

My children would mix up the hour hand to say the minutes first followed by the hour. Or they would just call out the minute hand as the hour hand as it is taller.

For this reason, I have included a separate sheet for a plain clock with no hands. The clock face printable shows the minutes around it. Kids can very easily learn to tell time by using their colored ice cream sticks and the printable clock for reference. My 6 year old daughter found this very helpful. I fact she had lots of fun telling me the time. If your child knows skip counting in 5s then, it becomes even more fun.

How to make the Lantern Telling Time Puzzles

What you need:

Telling Time Printable
Cardstock or paper
Laminator and laminating sheets( if you are using paper)
Ice cream sticks – 2
Scissors

How to prepare:

Download the printable from my TPT Store. Check your email for the printable.
Open the file with Acrobat reader.
Print out the puzzle pages and the clock face page.
We will use a red and blue colored icecream stick to learn about the minute and hour hand. If you don’t have colored sticks, you can paint two sticks red and blue or use cardstock. (No need to cut them to size! Just two plain sticks will do.)
If you are using paper, laminate the puzzle cards to prolong their life or you can use cardstock.
Cut the puzzles to separate the pieces.

How to teach children to tell time:

We will use the Clock Face page for reference. You can stick the paper up on a wall (preferably near a clock) so they can easily see the two clocks together and compare.
Teach them about the minutes first. Tell them that there are 60 minutes in an hour.
Skip count with them in 5s to show them the numbers.
Next show them why you are skip counting. (You can count all the lines on the clock till you reach 60 for this).
There are 12 hours on a clock but the clock goes around two times. (We will not tell them about the 24 hour clock yet since it will confuse them.)
You can talk to them about day and night time. 7’oclock in the morning and 7’oclock in the evening. 12 o’clock is noon and midnight. Talk to them about bedtime and wake up time.
If your child doesn’t know how to tell time and this is the first time they are learning, it is a good idea to keep practicing this with them using the Clock Face Page for reference. Whenever you tell time, take them to the clock and explain how it is. Ask them what time is it from time to time. This will help them practice.
Use the puzzle to practice and remind how numbers and minutes are counted.