Time in Year 1 Children begin to understand and use the vocabulary related to time from an early age. In Reception they will be introduced to the names of days of the week and other terms such as today, yesterday and tomorrow. This will be continued in Year 1, with much of the work being oral; talking about days of the week in everyday activities such as taking the register as well as periods of time in PE or Games lessons. By the end of Year 1 children will be expected to know that there are 7 days in a week and that there are 24 hours in a day. They should know the order of the days of the week and read the time to the hour and half hour using an analogue clock. Children today are less likely to use analogue clocks than in the past as computer screens, phones etc. tend to use digital displays. It is important therefore to have a clear 12 hour clock face on display at home and in the classroom. It is also important for children to gain a feel for how long a period of time is and children can make estimates of what they can do in one minute; we have a great worksheet on this. Also many of our Year 1 Calculations games are timed for half a minute, so by playing these they will quickly get a feel for how long half a minute is. Another important concept to grasp is sequencing of time, put events in order, and storytelling and story writing are excellent ways to do this. There are some great children’s books which can help with sequencing events such as: The Very Hungry caterpillar by Eric Carle The Bad-Tempered ladybird by Eric Carle and Mr Wolf’s Week by Colin Hawkins. Because it is so important, we have a separate category for Time in Year 1, which includes days of the week, months of the year and reading the time to the hour and half hour. We have also just published a vocabulary list of key words which can be used for display. Go to Time in Year 1