Learn Time with Timmy – Time
2 Minutes
Learn to read time on a clock for kids with Timmy, meeting the hour, minute, and second hands to tell the exact time. A short maths lesson in English.
- Meet the hour, minute, and second hands inside Timmy the clock
- How the hands move and why minutes and seconds multiply by 5
- Practice reading full times with hours, minutes, and seconds
What this lesson teaches
Reading time on a clock requires using three different hands that measure hours, minutes, and seconds. Each hand has a distinct shape, a different speed of movement, and a specific method for finding its numerical value.
The three hands of a clock
- The hour hand is short and chubby, and its position tells the current hour.
- The minute hand is tall and medium-sized, and its position marks the minutes.
- The second hand is super skinny, and its position marks the seconds.
How the clock hands move together
The movement of each hand depends on the faster hand completing a full circuit around the clock face. For the minute hand to take a single step forward, the second hand must make one complete round. Similarly, for the hour hand to advance by one step, the minute hand must finish one complete round.
Calculating minutes and seconds
The hour hand gives its value directly based on the number it points to, but the minute hand and second hand work differently. To find the correct number of minutes or seconds, the number pointed to by the hand must always be multiplied by five. For example, pointing to the number 2 means multiplying 2 by 5 to get 10 minutes, and pointing to 3 means multiplying 3 by 5 to get 15 seconds.
Examples from the lesson
In the first practice example, the hour hand points to 3, the minute hand points to 2, and the second hand points to 3. Multiplying 2 by 5 gives 10 minutes, and multiplying 3 by 5 gives 15 seconds, making the time 3 hours, 10 minutes, and 15 seconds. In the second example, the hour hand points to 5, the minute hand points to 9, and the second hand points to 6. Multiplying 9 by 5 gives 45 minutes, and multiplying 6 by 5 gives 30 seconds, creating a final reading of 5 hours, 45 minutes, and 30 seconds.