Here are some tricky parts you can practice together:
1. When it is half past the hour (30 minutes past), the hour hand is half way to the next hour. (Often children will see that it's 3:30 when the hour hand hasn't reached the 3 yet.)
2. The kids are really good at saying it's 9:45, or 10:50. But when I ask how many minutes until _______. It get's trickier. We are learning that it's 10 minutes before 11:00 when it's 10:50. You can practice counting how many minutes until ________ at home.
Elapsed Time
Some children came into third grade knowing how to tell time to the nearest minute. Those children having been solving problems about elapsed time.
Elapsed time is the amount of time that has passed. In third grade, children are expected to solve problems involving elapsed time, but it can be very tricky for them. Fortunately, we have learned a trick! The children have learned to make a T chart. You put the starting time at the top of the chart. You count the hours by ones and the minutes by fives. When you get to the ending time, you should have the accurate answer. Ask your third grader to show you! (Don't worry if they don't know yet. Some of us haven't worked on it yet. All kids will know by the end of the week. :o)
For example:
Happy time telling!