How to say the time in English PDFs, teaching tips, songs and stories. If you like anything here and want more, please support TEFLtastic.
Updated 26 June 2022
Teaching the time articles
How to teach telling the time in English (with game ideas) – LINK UPDATED
Photocopiable telling the time classroom activities
Telling the time flashcard memory games (with morning routines, evening routines, places around town, school subjects and weather vocabulary)
Telling the time guessing game
Stacking races game (cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers, dates, days of the week, months and times)
Johnny Slowly, Jeremy Normal and Jimmy Quickly telling the time story
Timetable battleships (days and times)
Other activities including the time
Making arrangements phone calls game (with brief stage brainstorming future time expressions)
Telling the time songs
What Time Is It? from Busy Beavers (slow and simple song just for times with o’clock- link to song and animation on YouTube)
What Time Is It? from LittleBabyBum (similar but with intro with “When the long hand points to the top and the short hand points to the hour”, which would give you time to get students ready to act out the song with their own arms – perhaps with a pencil in one hand to mean the long hand – link to song and animation on YouTube)
What’s the Time? from BrainTofu (rather freaky singing voice, but nice idea to do it to the tune of One Banana Two Banana, and has minutes as well – link to song and animation on YouTube)
And many more songs and chants available on YouTube. Note that Hickory Dickory Dock is not actually a time song, as it only has numbers with no “o’clock”
Telling the time books/ picture books
Johnny Slowly, Jeremy Normal and Jimmy Quickly telling the time story
The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle (times, including quarter of an hour at the end)
What’s the Time Mr Wolf (many versions available – this one has a finger puppet)
Cluck O’Clock (quite tricky but one of the few ones to have different numbers of minutes like “4:02” and rhymes, and could get students to correct you every time you say “o’cluck” – link to read through on YouTube)
Bats Around the Clock (some tricky vocabulary, but nice rhymes and actions that students could copy – link to read through on YouTube)
Link to more suggestions, but most too difficult to EFL classes.
Related pages
Present Simple for routines page
Time expressions main page(for days of the week, months, dates, etc)
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