TICK TOCK · LEARN TOGETHER
Hour hand and minute hand: a guide for kids
An analogue clock shows time with hands that travel around a numbered face. The short hand tells the hour. The longer hand tells the minutes. Tick Tock colours the hour hand orange and the minute hand blue so you can follow each one.
Find the hour first
When the short hand points exactly to 3 and the long hand points to 12, it is 3:00. When the short hand sits between 3 and 4, the hour is still 3. Read the number it has passed, not the number it is approaching.
The minute hand has a different job
The same printed numbers also help us count minutes. Each step from one big number to the next is five minutes: 1 means 5 minutes, 2 means 10, and 3 means 15. At 12 we start at zero minutes; after a full trip we have counted 60 minutes and begun the next hour.
Why does the hour hand move between numbers?
Both hands move together. At 3:30, half an hour has passed, so the hour hand is halfway between 3 and 4. At 3:45 it is closer to 4, but the time is still in the three o’clock hour. On a real clock, the hour hand does not jump suddenly once an hour.
Try a pointing game
Open the teaching clock and ask, “Which hand is shorter?” Next ask your child to move the minute hand through one full circle. Watch the hour hand move to the next number. Finish by setting 2:00 and asking your child to describe both hands.
What about the second hand?
The optional thin pink hand counts seconds. One trip takes 60 seconds, which makes one minute. Leave it hidden while learning the first two hands, then turn it on to explore smaller units of time.