Lesson 13

Is It a.m. or p.m.?

Lesson Purpose

The purpose of this lesson is for students to read and write time with analog and digital clocks, using a.m. and p.m.

Lesson Narrative

In previous lessons, students learned to tell time to the nearest 5 minutes using analog clocks.

In this lesson, students practice telling time to the nearest 5 minutes. Students recognize that the hour hand goes around the clock twice each day, so a.m. and p.m. are used to distinguish between morning and night. Students relate a.m. and p.m. to specific times and activities during the day.

  • Representation

Activity 1: What is the Time of Day?

Learning Goals

Teacher Facing

  • Label times using a.m. and p.m.
  • Read and write time to the nearest 5-minute interval on analog and digital clocks.

Student Facing

  • Let’s read and write times using a.m. or p.m.

Required Materials

Materials to Gather

Materials to Copy

  • Hours in a Day Timeline

Required Preparation

Activity 1:

  • Create the Hours in a Day Timeline to display to students in the launch.
  • Label the representation as “1 day.”
Hours in a day.

CCSS Standards

Addressing

Lesson Timeline

Warm-up 10 min
Activity 1 20 min
Activity 2 15 min
Lesson Synthesis 10 min
Cool-down 5 min

Teacher Reflection Questions

How helpful is the linear representation of 1 day for developing an understanding of the repeating 12-hour cycle? What more do students need to build an understanding of the hours that make up a.m. versus the hours that make up p.m.?

Suggested Centers

  • How Are They the Same? (1–5), Stage 2: Grade 2 Shapes (Addressing)
  • Can You Draw It? (1–5), Stage 2: Grade 2 Shapes (Addressing)
  • Which One? (K–5), Stage 3: Grade 2 Shapes (Addressing)

Print Formatted Materials

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Additional Resources

Google Slides

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PowerPoint Slides

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