Learn about Time for Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time is coming for a lot of North America and Europe in March, so it’s a fine time to talk about time! If you’re wondering, Wikipedia has a post all about which countries (or parts of countries) observe DST and when, as well as a timeline of when different countries the formerly observed it abolished the practice.

Of course if you’re talking about time, you need a clock, so first you can make a paper plate clock with this tutorial from Mum in the Madhouse. (Aside: is it true some kids aren’t taught how to read an analog clock anymore? It seems so foundational to how we teach time I can’t imagine it’s true, but I’ve heard people on the Internet say so.)

While you’ve got the paper plates out you can make your own sundial with these instructions from Krokotak. So fun!

Happy Homeschool Nest has a bunch of great free printables to do with telling time, including sheets on how to tell time, parts of a clock, matching time on an analog and a digital clock and more. You can grab these printables by signing up for email updates on their site (scroll all the way down).

Play with time and learn how to read a clock and write the time with these clock playdough mats from This Reading Mama.

And if you want to read about time, what it is, how it’s different on Earth and other planets, how people have tracked time through history, what philosophers have thought about time and more, check out The Book of Time by Clive Gifford. This information-packed book also includes information on how different clocks work, the history of alarm clocks, how accurately measuring time allows GPS to work, and of course time zones and Daylight Saving Time.

It also covers geologic time, how we measure the age of very old things like trees and fossils, life spans of various creatures on earth, body clocks and what happens in your body through the day and through a lifetime, animals’ concepts of time, and how often certain natural occurrences happen.

There’s also some information about space time, if time travel is possible, paradoxes and the future of time. It’s a fun book for kids who are interested in time and to get them (and maybe you, too) thinking about time in different ways.

About the book: 96 pages, hardcover, published 2023 by words & pictures, suggested retail price $24.99.

Telling Time with Apple Clocks

Make an Easy Clock for Teaching Time

Teach Kids to Tell Time with Books

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

Have you read?

Leave a Reply