The blackboard clock

by Eva Aldrich

TEACH THE PUPILS HOW TO TELL THE TIME.

First,—Teach the pupils to count to sixty.

Develop the idea of, and teach the pupils to write the Roman and Arabic numbers to twelve inclusive.

Teach the pupils that sixty minutes make an hour.

Review by careful questioning that which was done at previous exercises.

Develop all ideas as far as possible by questioning the pupils.

Tell the Pupils That:

The little spaces around the face of the clock are named minutes.

The big hand is the minute hand and it counts the minutes.

There are sixty little minutes around the face of the clock which the minute hand has to count.

The figures are named hours.

The little hand is the hour hand and it points out the hours.

The minute hand reaches clear to the minutes, and the hour hand touches only the hours.

Teach The Hour.

When the hour hand points to figure 1, it is one o’clock.

When the hour hand points to figure 2, it is two o’clock.

When the hour hand points to figure 3, it is three o’clock, etc.

Twelve is the home hour.

It is where the two hands live, yet they are always going.

They never go backward.

They always start away from home and go around back home again.

They always get home together at dinner time, that is, twelve o’clock, and again in the middle of the night, midnight, or twelve o’clock again.

Exercise I.

Send a pupil to the blackboard clock with a pointer; have him point to one o’clock, two o’clock, etc.

Let others do the same, but do not continue till the attention of the class wavers.

Let pupils count the minutes, by turns, each commencing where the one preceding him left off, always following the course of the hands of a clock.

Tell the Pupils That:

It is not our work to do the pointing nor the counting. The hour and minute hands on the face of a clock always do that to tell us what time it is.

The minute hand counts the minutes, and the hour hand points to the hours.

When the hour hand points to 1, it is one o’clock.

When the hour hand points to 2, it is two o’clock, etc.

Let us play it is dinner time. The hour and minute hands are home together, ready to start out and go around again. They are always ready to go and they always go the right way. They never go the wrong way. The minute hand goes all the way around, counts all the minutes and gets back home while the hour hand goes to only one figure, and then we know it is one o’clock, because the hour hand is pointing to it. The minute hand gets home just at the same time that the hour hand points to any hour.

There are twelve hours on the face of the clock.

It takes the hour hand a long time, twelve hours, to get home, but the minute hand gets home as soon as it counts the minutes all round the face of the clock.

Exercise II.

The teacher places the hands, each time stopping the hour hand at the right hour, and the minute hand at the twelve o’clock, or home hour, and having the pupils tell what time it is, individually.

Exercise III.

Send a pupil to the board; let him as the teacher dictates, make it one o’clock, two o’clock, etc. Let others do the same. Never continue for a minute with flagging interest and attention.

Drill until the pupils all see that the minute hand goes all the way around every time the hour hand goes from one hour to another.

Teach The Half Past.

Tell the pupils:—When the hour hand gets past a number, half way to the next number, the minute hand has counted half the minutes and is half way home.

Exercise IV.

Place the hands, at the half past marks, and let pupils tell individually what time it is.

Let pupils place the hands at the half past marks as the teacher dictates.

The Quarter Hour.

Develop the quarter past and quarter of by the same devices used for developing the half past.

Combine the hour, half hour and quarter hour exercises.

The Minutes.

The minutes past and minutes of may be taught by various methods, according to the ability of the pupils.

Many exercises may be devised by the teacher besides these here given.

Show The Pupils That:

The minute hand counts all the minutes while the hour hand goes from one hour to another.

The minute hand goes twelve times as fast as the hour hand.

The minute hand counts twelve minutes while the hour hand is going past one minute.

Exercise V.

Play it is dinner time, and the two hands are home together again, but they cannot stop, for it is their duty to always keep going.

Now we find the hour hand has gone past just one minute. It did not say anything about the minute nor even point at it because it never does do that. It just went past twelve, the home hour, and then past one minute.

What did the minute hand do?

It counted twelve minutes.

Then what time does the big minute hand tell us that it is?

It tells us that it is twelve minutes after, or past twelve.

Show The Pupils That:

The minute hand gets home twelve times as often as the hour hand.

The minute hand starts from home just when the hour hand starts from an hour.

The number of minutes from home to the minute hand is what the minute hand has counted each time, and it shows the time, or minutes past an hour.

The number of minutes from the minute hand around to home again is what the minute hand will have to count each time, and it shows the time or minutes to an hour, or of an hour.

Exercise VI.

Drill in placing hands for pupils to tell the time.

Dictate for pupils to place hands.