Start the study of time-telling with a simple paste project. Give each student a construction paper circle, a set of number cutouts featuring the digits 1 to 12 and two thin rectangles of various lengths to use as clock arms. Help students glue these numbers into place on the clock face then attach the hands to create an analog clock face.
Make a clock with movable arms with your preschoolers as a more advanced craft option. To prepare for this activity, create copies of a hand-free clock face on cardstock. Give each student one of these clocks, along with cardstock hands and a metal brad. Help students poke a hole in the center of the clock face as well as a hole in the base of each of the clock arms. Assist the students in stacking the hands, placing them on the clock face and attaching them with a brad to leave them movable. Ask students to set the clock hands so the clock displays their bedtime, then take it home with them and display it in their rooms to remind them of the importance of getting a good night’s sleep.
Please your students who love to color with a time-of-day coloring book. To prepare this activity, select several coloring page pictures featuring the outdoors at various times of day. Before copying these pictures, draw a clock face with numbers but no hands on the top of each. Copy a set of images for each student. Ask students to color the images, and then instruct them to add hands to the clock face to indicate what time it may be in the picture shown.
Help your students begin to understand how their day runs by engaging them in the creation of a class schedule poster. Divide students into groups and give each a slip of paper with a clock featuring no hands on it. Help students write a daily activity on each slip of paper, and then ask the groups to draw the hands on the clock to indicate when that activity takes place. Have the students decorate, and then glue the slips of paper onto one larger posterboard to make a student-created class schedule.