L7 Draw Hands on a Clock (O’Clock)

Build children’s understanding of telling and showing the time to the hour with this hands-on Working Without Worksheets lesson. Through singing, discussion, demonstration, and practical drawing activities, pupils will learn how to accurately draw clock hands to show o’clock times — deepening their understanding of how analogue clocks represent time. The lesson begins with a familiar time song to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, revisiting yesterday’s learning in an engaging, memorable way. The teacher recaps the two key clock hands — the short hour hand and the long minute hand — and discusses what each one shows. Children explore how the hour hand moves around the clock once every twelve hours and how the minute hand makes a full circle every hour. During the introduction, the teacher models how to draw times to the hour. Using teaching slides, children observe that when the long minute hand points to the 12, it shows an o’clock time, while the short hour hand points directly to the number of the hour. Step-by-step examples help pupils recognise how the relative lengths of the hands are essential to showing time accurately. In the activity, children apply their understanding by using blank clock faces and time cards to draw o’clock times independently. They carefully position the hour and minute hands and label each clock correctly. As they work, the teacher circulates to reinforce correct positioning and proportional hand length. The plenary encourages reasoning and peer discussion through a simple misconception example: Esin has drawn a clock showing 3 o’clock incorrectly by reversing the hands. The class discusses what went wrong and how to fix it, reinforcing visual accuracy and deepening conceptual understanding of how clocks represent time. What’s Included in the Pack ✔ Full lesson plan with clear objectives, teaching notes, and plenary discussion ✔ Animated teaching slides showing how to draw o’clock times step-by-step ✔ Starter: Time song (