Year 3 Tell the time to the nearest minute and compare units of time worksheet

“Minutes past the hour” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 3 maths unit “Tell the time to the nearest minute and compare units of time”, for children aged 7 to 8, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 35 to 36 of the year, 7 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Minutes past the hour

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 3 · Maths · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can read and write the time to the nearest minute past, using both hands.

A Look back3 min

1.
Count on in fives from 15. The next number is
2.
4 × 5 =
3.
45 54

B Watch me, then you4 min

Watch me

The minute hand points to the 2. That is 10 minutes past.

The hour hand has moved past the 3, so the hour is 3.

The time is 10 minutes past 3.

Now you

1.
The minute hand shows minutes past 7.

C Your turn6 min

Ruby checks the clock at the bus stop before she leaves. Read each clock.

A bus stop with a bench and a shelter on a sunny morning

1.
It is minutes past 4.
2.
It is minutes past 4.
3.
It is minutes past 4.
4.
It is 25 minutes past .

Say it out loud: What changed in each clock, and what stayed the same?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Ali says: “The clock shows 20 minutes past 9, so the hour hand is right on the 9.”

1.
Where is the hour hand at 20 minutes past 9? Circle the right answer.
right on the 9a third of the way to the 10back on the 8

E Think deeper3 min

1.
It is 40 minutes past 6. Draw both hands. Which number is the hour hand closer to?

How did it feel?

Did the hour hand or the minute hand catch you out today?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Minutes past the hour · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. 20

2. 20

3. <

B

1. 15 If your child says 3, they have read the number the hand points to, not the minutes. Each number is 5 minutes, so 3 is 15.

C

1. 5 If your child says 1, they counted the numbers, not the fives. Each number is 5 minutes, so the 1 means 5.

2. 10 If your child says 2, they have read the number the hand points to, not the fives. Each number is 5 minutes, so the 2 means 10.

3. 25 If your child says 5, they have read the number the hand points to. Each number is 5 minutes, so count in fives to the 5: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25.

4. 9 If your child says 10, they have read the hour hand as already at the 10. At 25 minutes past, the hour hand is still before the 10.

D

1. a third of the way to the 10 If your child circles right on the 9, remind them the hour hand keeps moving. 20 minutes is a third of an hour, so it has moved a third of the way to the 10.

E

1. 7. At 40 minutes past, the hour hand has moved two thirds of the way from the 6 to the 7. If your child writes 6, they have left the hour hand on the 6. At 40 minutes past, it has moved two thirds of the way to the 7.

Words to use

Say“Which hand tells us the minutes, and which hand tells us the hour?”

Instead of“Tell them the time straight away so they do not have to look.”

After the sheet

Make a paper plate clock with two cardboard hands. Set 25 minutes past 4, then check that both hands are in the right place.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

6 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Minutes past and minutes to(with a plan)
How long does it take?(with a plan)
Clock numbers in Roman(with a plan)
Is It AM or PM?(with a plan)
Months, years and leap years(with a plan)
Seconds in a minute(with a plan)

Every Year 3 maths worksheet

The worksheets plan opens a printable sheet for every lesson in Years 1 to 6, each with its answers on a separate page for you. It costs £6.99 a month or £59 a year for the whole family, with no free trial.

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