Free worksheets · Grade 3
Telling Time to the Minute Worksheet
Read each clock and write the time to the exact minute, like 12:26.
Free printable
Telling Time to the Minute
8 questions, one page, US Letter. Print it and do it on paper.
On the sheet: Find the short hand: the number it has just passed is the hour. Find the long hand and count by fives from the top to the last number it has passed. Count on by ones for each small mark after that. Write the time as the hour, a colon, then two digits for the minutes.
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About this worksheet
Telling time to the minute means reading the long hand past the five-minute marks: count by fives to the last number it passed, then count on by ones for each small mark.
Third grade is when clocks move past the hour, half hour and five minutes to any minute at all, which is the reading every real clock asks for.
A worked example
The short hand is just past 12. The long hand is one mark past the 5.
- The hour is 12, the number the short hand has just passed.
- Count by fives from the 12 to the 5: 25 minutes.
- Count on one more mark: 26 minutes.
Answer: 12:26
The common mistake
What it looks like: Reading the hour from the number the short hand is closest to: 12:50 read as 1:50.
Why it happens: Near the end of the hour, the short hand is almost at the next number.
How to fix it: Use the number the short hand has just passed, not the one it is heading toward, until the long hand reaches the 12.
Ten minutes a day, on paper. We plan what comes next.
A printed page and a pencil. No screen, no login for your child. Snap a photo when they’re done: AI scores it, and what they missed comes back on the sheets that follow.
- Mon Telling Time to the Minute
- Tue What they missed, back again
- Wed The next step, when they’re ready
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