When I first began teaching Spanish, I would take a whole week to teach time. We’d make clocks out of paper plates. We’d label each time, color coordinate it and so on. With a class of high school kids this would take a FULL class period, if not more. Then, we’d practice all the terms for times from AM, PM, quarter past and so on. We’d do activities in the book and our workbook and I’d assign worksheets for homework. They would eventually get a test on Friday. One whole week dedicated to just telling time and practicing numbers! What a waste of time and how boring! Oh and don’t even get me started on the amount of English spoken during clock making time!
Now, I’ve flipped my classroom so that I don’t dedicate much of class to learning how to tell time and it is amazing how, with just a few simple activities stretched over a few days, my students learn how to tell time.
Day one: We start with a song, which you can above. I sing it for them with the hand motions, and they watch. I then have them say the song with me without the tune. Just repeating the lines. Now, we sing it as a class, most still only say a few lines and the song ends with “What time is it?”. I ask this question as I point to the clock in our room. Many already understand the question simply by the actions of the song and that I’m pointing to the clock on the wall. They can also throw out some numbers to me, as we’ve already practiced 0-39. I usually will hear something like this “10. 26”. I say it correctly for them, “It is 10:26” and they repeat. I leave it at that and we move on to other activities. I am not concerned if they say “y” between the 10 and 26 or if they say “son las or es la” correctly. I am just giving them a quick intro into telling time.
This is the clock in my room. I created it after I heard a kid one day say “I’m surprised her clock isn’t in Spanish!”
Day two: I start the class with the song again. I say it, they listen then we do it together. I ask them the time, and they shoot out numbers. Again, I’m not too concerned with the sentence structure, just introducing them to the language and question. We move on.
Day three: I start the song but after the first line, they are singing it on their own as I walk around to listen and nudge the non-participating students. They can now say the times and ask “What time is it?” simply by us practicing it a few days at the beginning of class. Next, I throw some times up on the Smart Board as images. (IMAGES) I prefer digital clocks to start off with to ensure that I’m assessing their ability to tell time in Spanish and not also, their ability to read an analog clock. I ask the students “What time is it?” and they just throw their answers out and then I say it for them to hear, and they repeat. I am pointing things out like “y” and “son las, es la” and they are repeating with me. I then have the same digital clocks all on one page, and in partners they practice telling time to each other. I then, go back to the original digital images of clocks by themselves, and we play some sort of game where the person out has to say what time it is. Below, I have ideas for games. I make sure to have the class ask the student up, “What time is it?” so everyone is participating and practicing the vocab. Now, I continue to highlight certain vocab elements such as “media” and “cuatro”. We repeat it and I have clocks with those times to reinforce the vocab. This only takes 15 minutes max and I repeat it the next day. By then, almost all the students can tell time with ease. Those that can’t, it comes down to just not knowing their numbers. So, we will do some more games and activities with numbers. I also ensure the students receive notes for telling time in their journal to use as a reference.
I will go back to the song and images that they have to practice telling time with, over and over again throughout the school year. This is to ensure they don’t lose the language and I continue to add in levels of difficulty.
There are several activities/games we can also play to practice telling time. I have listed some below:
Each student has a piece of paper with a clock on it and they have to go to another student in the class and say “What time is it?”. The person than tells the time they are holding and then asks the same question to their partner. They then switch cards and find another partner and repeat. I will do this activity several times, again working to reinforce the language through repetition. I can repeat this even in the higher levels by adding a piece of complexity. Perhaps the higher levels students in 2nd or 3rd year can say where they are and what they are doing at that time on the clock.
Another activity is to ask the kids at what time they do things so they are using the task of telling time in a practical way. You can use images (found in the PP) also to help support comprehension, which you’ll find in the PowerPoint.
You could use this free board game or this one and have students play in groups of 4.
Use authentic resources that have times to practice interpretive reading. Some examples included in the PowerPoint are a bus schedule in Madrid, movie schedule, student schedules and a weekly schedule.
You can also play tons of other games, and just have the person who is called out to say a time on the board or answer a scenario question. Such as hot potato, my kids prefer this pig and I take out the sound piece when we throw it around as it is softer that way. My students also like musical chairs and I will pull out enough chairs so two kids are out. Then one can ask the other the time. Lastly, another popular activity is “chupacabra”. The kids all stand in a circle with one student in the middle. As the student in the middle closes their eyes, I go around and tap on the back of four students. They are the “chupacabra”. Then, the student in the middle has to go around and ask questions to the students. You can have them just ask “What time is it?” or “At what time do you…?” or you can also have them ask a different question each time, depending on level of difficulty. The task of the kid in the middle is to ask questions as they try and figure out who are the “chupacabra”. Once a student who is the “chupacabra” is asked a question, they call out “chupacabra” and all the kids run around and try to find a new spot in the circle. The last one in the middle is now the one to ask questions and we start over again.