Time - 24-hour clock activity - Presentation

In a comprehensive lesson about understanding the 24-hour clock, students are introduced to the concept that while an analogue clock displays 12 numbers, a full day consists of 24 hours. The lesson emphasises the method of adding 12 to the time shown on an analogue clock to convert it to the corresponding time in the afternoon or evening on a 24-hour clock. For example, 1 o'clock in the afternoon is represented as 13:00 in 24-hour time. Students are encouraged to discuss and identify various times displayed on clocks, learning to express times such as '20 past 8' and '25 to 1' in both 12-hour and 24-hour formats. The activities are designed to help students recognise the pattern of converting times from a 12-hour clock to a 24-hour clock, with a focus on understanding that the 24-hour clock continues from midnight (00:00) to midnight the following day.

Further activities in the lesson include challenges where students work in pairs to convert times such as 4 pm, 9 pm, and 11 pm into 24-hour clock times, reinforcing the concept that afternoon times can be found by adding 12 to the time shown on an analogue clock. The lesson also addresses common misconceptions, such as the incorrect notion that there is no such time as 'half past 15', clarifying that 15:30 is indeed a valid time and represents half past three in the afternoon. Students engage in various exercises, including matching digital and analogue clock times, writing 24-hour clock times for given scenarios, and completing tables that contrast 12-hour and 24-hour times. The lesson concludes with a reasoning activity where students describe the events of a day using the 24-hour clock, and they are encouraged to draw their own timeline to represent a part of their day using the 24-hour format.