Make a paper clock to help your first graders learn how to tell time. You will need scissors, glue, white paper, two different colored pieces of construction paper, a pencil and a brass paper fastener. You can find a template of a clock, or draw the clock face on the white paper. Cut out a small hand and a big hand from one of the colored pieces of construction paper. Glue the clock face on the other piece of construction paper, then use the brass fastener to attach the hands to the middle of your clock face. Move the hands to the three o'clock position and tell the students this is when school is over. Relating the abstract idea of time to a concrete event helps young children grasp the idea.
Take a sheet of paper and draw eight rectangles on it. Write different times inside each rectangle. Make copies of the timeline and hand them out to students. Point to each rectangle, recite the time written inside the box, and ask students to draw a picture of the activities they perform at that time of day.
You can teach your first-grade class about history and telling time with a sun dial art project. You will need a clear spot outside, a stick and some colorful pebbles. Take the kids outside and put the stick in the ground. Each hour, go outside and put a pebble at the spot where the stick's shadow falls. Explain to the children that this is the way people used to tell time before the invention of watches. You can help understand the connection between time and sunlight.
Draw a picture of a clock face, but leave some of the numbers blank. Ask your students to fill in the missing numbers to complete the face of the clock. Let the class make their own clock hands and draw them in whatever shape they want. Help students cut their clock hands out of paper, and use brass fasteners to attach the hands to the center of the clock. Ask the children to move the hands of the clock to a specific hour, and then ask them what they normally do at that time every day. Encourage children to draw pictures of the activities they perform at this time of day. You can repeat the activity a few times with different hours.