Look at the classroom clock. The minute hand is sitting somewhere between the 8 and the 9. It is not exactly on a number, so it is not a tidy 'past five' time.

What exact minute could it be? Could it be 41, or 42, or 43, or 44? How would you work out which one?

Eighteen minutes past

This example is about counting on the single minutes. Watch the minute hand sit just past the 3. The 3 means fifteen minutes, so we say fifteen, then count on the single minutes: sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. That is eighteen minutes past.

7:43

This example is about switching between 'past' and 'to'. Look at this clock and its digital twin. The hands show forty-three minutes past seven, written 7:43. We can also say it as 'seventeen minutes to eight'.

2:09

This example is about the zero. It is nine minutes past two. Watch how we write it as 2:09 with a zero in front of the nine, never 2:9.

11:56

This example is a 'to' time close to the top of the hour. The minute hand is nearly back at the top. It reads 11:56, which we can say as 'four minutes to twelve'.

Today we set these to-the-minute times on the clock together, and check the digital readout matches each one: 3:12, then 6:47, then 8:09.

While one pupil sets the hands at the board, the rest of us follow along: count the single minutes aloud together, then read the digital screen and confirm it matches before we move on.

Today we work through these fresh times together: 5:23, then 9:41, then 4:07, then 11:59. The single minutes past the nearest five catch people out, and so does the zero before a single-digit minute, so we will count each one aloud before we check it.

What we did today

• We counted single minutes on from the nearest five-minute mark to read the exact minute.
• We matched an analog clock face to its digital readout, and read times as 'past' or 'to'.
• We remembered the zero before a single-digit minute, like 2:09.

Coming up

Next we meet the 24-hour clock, where the afternoon and evening hours keep counting on instead of starting again at 1.