Time Concepts

  • Posted by:Ann Baker

I.Q., It’s Time is one of my favourite time concept books.

It is hard to find quality picture books about time. Often, they are nothing more than images of random o’clock times designed to explicitly teach, often out of context, how to tell the time. I.Q., lt’s Time is not like that at all. Yes, there is time telling woven into the story line but there is so much more as well. Here is an example.

This double-page spread presents:

  • analogue and digital clocks, the digital sharing the actual time and the analogue being used to learn how to tell the time,
  • the digital dock introduces am and pm,
  • a note which is used to show how time organises our day – there is a parent night at 7 o’clock.

How could you use it?

You could use this book in so many ways depending on the age or readiness of the students. Throughout the book there are rich connections being made, connections between:

  • passage of time and events that happen at set times during the day
  • am and pm, 24 hours in a day which is shown with images of a globe and talk about the earth spinning once every 24 hours and is cleverly picked up in the opening 8 am and closing 8pm, of the school day
  • hours in a day, minutes in an hour and seconds used for timing
  • o’ clock times, 15 minute and 5 minute intervals and 1 minute intervals

Every page is a conversation starter and learning opportunity.

The culmination of the story is the teaching, learning clock, complete with daily events in sequence, that IQ, the mouse, has made. What a trigger for students to make their own.

The story is set in an American classroom, so time comparisons can be made:

  • how long are they at school?
  • how much earlier is their start and finish time?
  • how is their day timetabled?

Passage of time and durations, as in:

  • how much time does IQ still have left to work on his surprise?

And of course, if you are old enough to remember the 80s, you will instantly see the scope for innovating on the story, incorporating context, events and times to match.

We do have a resource that covers Time Concepts – About Time is a professional development starter that provides many suggestions that you might find helpful.