Write the Time Worksheet

Reading an analog clock to the nearest five minutes is the moment telling time stops being a memory trick and starts being real math. A second grader has to read two hands at once: the short hour hand, which creeps forward as the hour goes by, and the long minute hand, which points to a number that must be counted by fives. This Write the Time Worksheet gives students eight clock faces to work through, so the two-hand habit gets built one careful reading at a time.

This 2nd grade telling time worksheet is a two-part printable. In Part A, students study six analog clocks and write the digital time on a pair of solid handwriting lines under each face — the hour on the left, the minutes on the right, with the colon already printed between them. Every clock is drawn to the real instrument’s geometry: sixty minute ticks, twelve numbered hours, and an hour hand that sits partway between two numerals exactly as a real clock shows it. In Part B, the job flips. Students read a printed time above two empty clock faces and draw both hands themselves, which is the harder half of the standard and the one that shows whether a child truly understands what each hand means. Print this Write the Time Worksheet for morning work, a math center, homework, or a quick check before a unit test.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• Answer key
• 6 read-the-clock items and 2 draw-the-hands items, all to the nearest five minutes

There are three reasons this page moves students forward quickly. First, the times were chosen so that no two items share an hour or a minute value, which means a child cannot pattern-match their way to an answer — each clock has to be read on its own. Second, the hour hand is drawn where it truly belongs rather than parked on a numeral, so students learn to say “it is a little past nine” instead of guessing the nearest number. Third, asking students to draw the hands in Part B turns passive recognition into active construction, the same shift second grade standards ask for.

Teachers and parents can stretch this practice all week. Keep a small demonstration clock nearby and have children set it to the time lunch starts, recess ends, or the school day finishes. Count around a real classroom clock by fives together, touching each numeral as you go. Ask students to write a simple schedule for their afternoon and draw a clock beside each activity. Then sing the Counting By Fives Song together so counting the minute marks becomes automatic.

Related Resources

• Telling Time To The Hour Worksheet
• Telling Time To The Half Hour Worksheet
• Telling Time To The Quarter Hour Worksheet
• Counting By Fives Song by Have Fun Teaching