Craft tutorials and free templates

‘Tell the time’ clock // free printable

My boys are learning to tell the time at the moment. I tried to find a printable ‘learning clock’ online, but struggled to find a decent one, so it seemed like a good idea to make my own.

'Tell the time' clock // free printable by minieco

There are two different versions. There’s a green and blue one (to help understand ‘minutes-past’ and ‘minutes-to’). There is also a standard clock (one in rainbow and one in black and red).

'Tell the time' clock // free printable by minieco

I don’t normally design learning aids so if there are any teachers out there with any useful comments or bits of advice then please leave a comment ^_^

'Tell the time' clock // free printable by minieco

As, usual printable files are at the foot of the post.

'Tell the time'  clock // free printable by minieco

'Tell the time'  clock // free printable by minieco

'Tell the time' clock // free printable by minieco

YOU WILL NEED:
– – – – – – – – – –
+ Good quality A4 paper or thin card
+ Scissors
+ Compass (or sharp point)
+ Small split pin

HOW TO
– – – – – – –

1. Print out the pdf. Set your printing preferences to ‘photo’ or ‘best photo’.
2. Cut out the clock face
3. Cut out the ‘minutes’ and ‘hours’ hand.
4. Using a compass point pierce a hole in the center of each of the crosses.
5. Join the hands and the face together using a small split pin.



PRINTABLE FILES:
– – – – – – – – – –
Standard clock in rainbow colors [PDF]
Standard clock in black and red [PDF]
Clock (minutes-past/minutes-to) [PDF]

67 thoughts on “‘Tell the time’ clock // free printable

  1. so so so awesome and usefull clock for kids! we are crazy about clocks so would you mind if we repost your free printable clock on our blog? Thanks for sharing:) Monika from tikutikudesign

  2. I think the Minutes Past/Minutes To clock is perfect as it is.
    The rainbow clock would be useful when learning about the differences between analogue and digital time – would there be some way to include 24 time on the hour circle? And I would perhaps change the colouring slightly so that 5 and 55 are the same colour, 10 and 50 the same etc, so that the correlation between past and to can also be seen clearly on this clock face.

  3. Wow- this is exactly what I was looking for, thank you so much for sharing! We printed out the rainbow clock with minutes and are laminating it- hopefully it makes it through teaching two kiddos how to tell time!

  4. I am a veteran first grade teacher, and must say that this is MUCH superior to most “learning clocks” I have seen. I like both of them, for different reasons (which is why you made them both, I am sure!). The one thing I think is the absolute KEY to helping young learners figure out this often-tricky skill is making sure they have a strong understanding of which hand is which–not just a wild guess. Your clock makes this pretty easy. I always explain to my kiddos that the long/minute hand is LONG because it’s job is counting the minutes, which are on the outer ring of the clock’s circle (i.e., that hand doesn’t actually point to the 1-12 numbers). It’s very helpful when the long hand is the same color as the minute “ticks” and the short hand is the same color as the numbers 1-12 (which are what it tracks). I love how nicely your hands reach perfectly to the parts of the clock they track. Nice work! Thanks!

  5. Thanks for the great comment Meg. When I get a moment I’ll put together a clock with 24hr digits on.

  6. Hi Deborah, thanks for such a kind comment. It’s great to hear from a first grade teacher. Praise indeed!

    Totally agree on what you said with regard to matching the colours. I actually think the red and black one is the clearest and that’s the one my kids have been using.

    Thanks for stopping by.

    Kate ^_^

  7. What a great clock you have made. I work in a school and was making card clocks with some children last week. We wrote hours and minutes on the hands to help remember which was which, but your idea with the concentric circles is much smarter.

  8. It’s amazing idea! I love it so much, hope my kid love it too. thanks a lot. —A Mom from China. =)

  9. aaaw so lovely of yours to made a learning clock for your son, my mother had made one for us kiddo’s as well, of fabric with inside cartboard, She embroidered the numbers on it.
    this is much quicker to make.LOL
    But i like the idea and the sharing of you and i hope he will learn it all well in the end with your help and printable clock;-D

  10. Thanks so much. Love all your postings. I am going to print out one for each of my two granddaughters who are coming to celebrate Christmas in 3 weeks. One is 11 and the other 9.

  11. Best clock ever! I am teaching telling time right now and this will be so helpful. I never thought of placing the hour numbers inside like that. Brillant. Thanks so much for sharing.

  12. Fantastic clock. I use it to teach my son and it is very helpful. Thanks a lot for sharing this fab clock with us. My youngest daughter (5) loves the rainbow colors. nx

  13. Absolutely perfect, thank you! I am a student teacher on a placement in Year 1 and these are exactly what l was looking for.
    Thank you 🙂

  14. Wow, this is just what i was looking for. All the info a child needs to learn to tell the time all on one watch face. Thanks for making it a free download. You saved me so much time …

  15. Thank you for sharing this fantastic resource. My students will be very happy to have their own clocks during lessons.
    Kind regards,
    Tam
    yr5sk.edublogs.org
    Australia

  16. How clever are you its unreal clock, I have been looking for one and this is the best I have seen yet

  17. Thanks very mush for the great clocks. Perfect for my 7yr old to work out what “past” and “to” is all about!

    I didn’t have a split pin , but instead I hot glued half a cork onto the back and used a drawing pin through the front to hold the hands. Works great, hands spin nicely and the cork makes a great hand while I explain and move the hands for my son.
    Thanks again.

  18. Thank you so much for sharing. I am sure we will have plenty of fun. Great to be in contact with others who love learning. Thanks again, from a small homeschooling family in Spain.

  19. Thanks for sharing such a good idea. I can now make a simple clock for my baby without buying a protractor.

  20. Hi Kate
    Thanks very much for the templates, I’m going to laminate one of the them to enable the kids to draw the hands on themselves with white board pens so we can re-use them and make the other two with the hands……
    Regards
    Jimmy M

  21. Thank you so much for creating this clock craft. It’s so perfect for my French EFL class of 8 yr.olds. They will be learning to tell the time tomorrow morning, so I found this just in time! I live in Switzerland.
    Well done!!

  22. i like this but. ..the files at the bottom of the post only have the minutes not the face of the clock. where do i get that? thanks
    jeannine

  23. Thanks very much for this; I’m actually going to use this for my college music theory class–we’re going to work on a topic that requires a base-12 counting system, so a clock face is perfect. (Now I don’t have to take down the one hanging on the back wall to use as a demo.)

  24. Thank you very very much.. was teaching time and found this clock simple and amazing..

    Regards,
    Neta (from India)

  25. I teach first grade and have been looking at printable clock for years. This is by far the best printable clock I’ve seen! I love the length of the hands, the words 1/2 past, 1/4 to etc. Great job!

  26. Fantastic! So elegant, clean, and uncluttered. The only problem is the school brackets. They are big and the whole punch looks like it will barely squeeze between the hands of the clocks. Thank you.

  27. Thanks a lot !!! that will help us to teach our little boy how to read a clock. The only hour he knows is midafternoon snack time ! :-))

  28. Thank you! These will come in handy teaching time! And like others have said, blame it on the digital age! ; )

  29. Thank you so much, these are amazing!
    Can I ask for another version? I would like one that is completely blank for students to fill in. Let me know what you think 🙂

  30. One of my son’s goals this summer is to learn to tell time. I’ve been searching all over the place for how to do so and what tools to use and this is EXACTLY what I was looking for. We have a little laminator at home, so I’m going to laminate it to make it more durable. Thank you SOOO much!

  31. Thank you very much ! It’s very nice.
    Would you mind if I repost your free printable clock on my FB?

  32. As a year one teacher this is just what i needed to indtroduce the clock for the first time! Many printable clocks didnt have minutes on which i think is quite hard for children to understand but this is perfect. Thank you so much x

  33. Found this printable and it is so wonderful. Color is beautiful and my kids love everything rainbow color. I had a questions when printing though. Do you know why my computer changes the fonts when I print it on a thicker card stock instead of regular paper? I have tried to print the clock several times and each time I print it on cardstock, it changes the font. Thank you!!!!

  34. GRAZIE!!! bellissima e fantastica idea! con questo pdf sarà più semplice spiegare l’orologio a mia figlia. complimenti!

  35. Thank you. Just what I was lookling for now the grandchildren have coem to live nearby.

  36. This is amazing. I have just learned that it is not part of our school districts curriculum to teach time anymore. This will make teaching my 5 & 8 year olds so much easier! Thank you for sharing this.

  37. Beautiful clocks! I’m a homeschooling mother to 5 children. These are perfect! I’ll use the rainbow clock for my early elementary learners, and the past and to clock with the later elementary learners. Thank you so much for this printable.

  38. Hi, the clock minutes past/to PDF isn’t downloading properly? Could you look into it please xxx

  39. Thank-you so much. I am homeschooling 2 right now and 2 more on the way …. Thanks

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