KS1 / KS2 Maths: How long is quarter of an hour?

Video summary

Sabrina needs to make a 15 minute long video of Tempo for a talent show. The children give examples of activities which take 15 minutes – like eating lunch or walking to school.

They use multiplication to find out how many of their one-minute activities they can do in 15 minutes.

Sabrina shows how 15 minutes is a quarter of the clock, so we call it quarter past.

graphic shows how a quarter is half of a half.

We see how the clock moves from 11 o’clock to quarter past 11 as Sabrina films Tempo doing impressions.

From BBC Series Round the Clock.

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Teacher Notes

Key Stage1:

This could be used to explore the concept of a quarter. Find a quarter of different items by finding half of a half.

Children could be asked to find the quarters of different shapes by folding.

Count the number of a quarter of 60 beans by sharing the beans onto four plates.

Ask the students to find a quarter of a clock face by folding a cardboard clock face. Count how many little lines there are on the clock when the minute hand has moved quarter of the way round.

Children can investigate what they can do in 15 minutes: can they run round the playground or read a page of a book? What else can they do?

Key Stage 2:

Children could make a display of different ways to show a quarter: e.g. a quarter of shapes, quantities, ¼, quarter of an hour etc.

Investigate ways to find a quarter of different amounts. Help the children to recognise that finding a quarter relates to dividing into 4 equal amounts.

In pairs, children can investigate what they can do in 15 minutes. They can draw a clock showing where the minute hand is pointing on the class clock, and draw another one showing where it will be pointing in 15 minutes.

Challenge the children to find out what different activities they can do in 15 minutes. Can they write the alphabet 15 times, write out a poem or do a jigsaw?

This clip will be relevant for teaching Maths at KS1 and KS2 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and First and Second Level in Scotland.

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Sabrina learns how to measure a second using one-elephant two-elephant.

How long is a second?

Sabrina is entering a competition to rap the most words in one minute. But how long does a minute last?

How long is a minute?

The children make Tempo a clock birthday cake, and use the 5 fingers on their hands to count the intervals between the numbers.

How long is five minutes

The children give examples of things in their daily lives that take just half an hour.

How long is half an hour?

It takes Sabrina an hour to get to work on the train – what can she get done on the journey?

How long is an hour?

Children tell us what dates are in their calendars, and Sabrina makes herself a clock.

Using clocks and calendars

Sabrina and Tempo perform a lively song to recap what’s already been learnt about days, calendars and the hands of the clock.

A song about time
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