Year 3 Mathematics · AC9M3M04

Telling Time on Analogue and Digital Clocks

Describe how hours and minutes work together, read analogue and digital time to the nearest minute, use everyday time language, and understand where the hour hand should…

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Learning goalsSay it simply

AC9M3M04 is about understanding the relationship between hours and minutes on analogue and digital clocks and reading time to the nearest minute. Students should do more than memorise quarter-hour times: they need to read exact minute marks, interpret the hour hand when it sits between numbers, and connect the same time across analogue, digital and spoken forms.

Big idea: minutes show how far the minute hand has travelled through the current hour; the hour tells us which hour has most recently started. The hour hand moves gradually toward the next hour as the minutes pass.
  • Identify the hour hand, minute hand, hour numbers and minute marks.
  • Read and represent time to five-minute intervals and to the nearest minute.
  • Connect analogue clocks, digital notation and spoken time.
  • Use o’clock, quarter past, half past, quarter to, minutes past and minutes to.
  • Explain why the hour hand is usually between two hour numbers.
  • Check whether the positions of both hands agree with a stated digital time.
  • Apply clock reading in school, transport, sport, cooking and daily-routine contexts.
Clean visual examplesOne-page board

Clean one-page examples

AC9M3M04 - Telling Time on Analogue and Digital Clocks
Example 1

Content description: describe the relationship between the hours and minutes on analog and digital clocks, and read the time to the nearest minute.

Example 2

AC9M3M04_E1: represent and read time on an analog clock using the markings and positions of the hands, to the nearest minute mark or five-minute interval.

Example 3

AC9M3M04_E2: read and connect analogue and digital time and interpret time language such as 12:15 as quarter past 12, 12:45 as quarter to 1, and 10:05 as 5 minutes past 10.

Example 4

AC9M3M04_E3: read analogue clocks throughout the day and connect the position of the hour hand with the distance travelled by the minute hand during the current hour.

Curriculum examplesCopied content
  • Content description: describe the relationship between the hours and minutes on analog and digital clocks, and read the time to the nearest minute.
  • AC9M3M04_E1: represent and read time on an analog clock using the markings and positions of the hands, to the nearest minute mark or five-minute interval.
  • AC9M3M04_E2: read and connect analogue and digital time and interpret time language such as 12:15 as quarter past 12, 12:45 as quarter to 1, and 10:05 as 5 minutes past 10.
  • AC9M3M04_E3: read analogue clocks throughout the day and connect the position of the hour hand with the distance travelled by the minute hand during the current hour.
Practice and reviewReady for practice
  • Reading the minute hand on 7 as 7 minutes instead of 35 minutes.
  • Reading only the minute hand and ignoring the hour hand.
  • Leaving the hour hand exactly on a number after minutes have passed.
  • Thinking the hour is the number the hour hand is moving toward rather than the hour most recently passed.
  • Writing 7:5 instead of 7:05.
  • Calling 3:45 quarter past 3 instead of quarter to 4.
  • Reversing the hour and minute parts of digital time.
  • Counting printed numbers instead of minute marks.
  • Getting a correct answer but being unable to explain why both hands make sense.
Curriculum alignmentStart here

AC9M3M04 is about understanding the relationship between hours and minutes on analogue and digital clocks and reading time to the nearest minute. Students should do more than memorise quarter-hour times: they need to read exact minute marks, interpret the hour hand when it sits between numbers, and connect the same time across analogue, digital and spoken forms.

Big idea: minutes show how far the minute hand has travelled through the current hour; the hour tells us which hour has most recently started. The hour hand moves gradually toward the next hour as the minutes pass.
  • Identify the hour hand, minute hand, hour numbers and minute marks.
  • Read and represent time to five-minute intervals and to the nearest minute.
  • Connect analogue clocks, digital notation and spoken time.
  • Use o’clock, quarter past, half past, quarter to, minutes past and minutes to.
  • Explain why the hour hand is usually between two hour numbers.
  • Check whether the positions of both hands agree with a stated digital time.
  • Apply clock reading in school, transport, sport, cooking and daily-routine contexts.
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