Lesson 13

Is It a.m. or p.m.?

Warm-up: Choral Count: Count Around the Clock (10 minutes)

Narrative

The purpose of this Choral Count is for students to practice counting by 5-minute intervals. This will be helpful later in this lesson when students tell time to the nearest 5 minutes. It is important to note that after 3:55, the count switches to the next hour, 4:00, and begins again. Students may continue with 3:60. If this happens, use a demonstration clock to show the minute hand moving around the clock as students count. Students have been telling time to the hour since grade 1 and will likely realize it is __ o’clock, not __:60. Students may also be unsure of what to say for 4:05. Stop to discuss how students may have heard this time. Explain that we often say “O-5” when it is 5 minutes after the hour.

Launch

  • “Count on by 5 minutes, starting at 3:45.”
  • Record as students count.
  • Stop counting and recording at 5:00.

Activity

  • “Digital clocks represent time using digits. What patterns do you see?”
  • 1–2 minutes: quiet think time
  • Record responses.

Student Response

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Activity Synthesis

  • “Where do you see a change in the pattern of counting by 5?” (After 55, we go back to 0, or o’clock, instead of 60.)

Activity 1: What is the Time of Day? (20 minutes)

Narrative

The purpose of this activity is for students to make sense of a visual representation of the hours in 1 day. This visual is designed to help students see the hours that make up a.m. and p.m. Since this is a linear representation, students might mention that the visual looks like a number line. It would be helpful to point out ways the 2 visuals are alike and ways they are different. For example, students may notice that the same 12 hours are repeated in each part of the day, but numbers do not repeat on a number line. Students have opportunities to develop logical arguments for why an event may happen during a.m. or p.m. hours and critique the arguments of others (MP3).

This activity uses MLR8 Discussion Supports. Advances: listening, conversing

Required Materials

Materials to Gather

Materials to Copy

  • Hours in a Day Timeline

Required Preparation

  • Create the Hours in a Day Timeline to display to students in the launch.
  • Label the representation as “1 day.”
Hours in a day.

Launch

  • Groups of 2
  • “Clare starts school at 8:00.”
  • “Clare’s bedtime is 8:00.”
  • “How could both of these statements be true?” (School starts in the morning and bedtime is at night. There is an 8:00 in the morning and another 8:00 at night.)
  • 30 seconds: quiet think time
  • 1 minute: partner discussion
  • Share responses.
  • Display a prepared timeline.
  • “What do you notice? What do you wonder?” (It represents 1 day. Half is a.m. and half is p.m. Noon and midnight are labeled.)
  • 1 minute: partner discussion
  • Share responses.
  • “Each day is broken up into 2 parts, called a.m. and p.m. We think of a.m. as morning and p.m. as afternoon and night.”
  • Give each student a timeline, scissors, and access to glue.

Activity

  • “Cut out the two parts of the day and glue them together. Circle and label when you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the diagram. Then shade in all the times you might be sleeping.”
  • 5 minutes: independent work time
  • Share responses.
  • “Now you are going to think about what part of a day different things might happen. Decide whether they would happen in the a.m. (morning) or p.m. (afternoon or night).”
  • “When you make your choice, explain your thinking to your partner.”

MLR8 Discussion Supports

  • Display sentence frames to support students when they discuss why an event would happen in the a.m. or p.m.:
    • “This would happen in the a.m./pm. because …”
    • “I agree because …”
    • “I disagree because …”
  • 5 minutes: partner work time

Student Facing

  1. Use the materials your teacher gives you to create your own representation for the hours in a day.

    • Circle and label when you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the diagram.

    • Shade in when you might be sleeping.

  2. Fill in the blank with a.m. or p.m. to show the time of day for each activity. Explain your thinking to your partner.

    1. Diego goes to baseball practice at 3:00 __________.
    2. Mai eats breakfast at 7:00 __________.
    3. Tyler eats lunch at 12:00 __________.
    4. Elena walks her dog at 2:00 __________.
    5. Han gets on the bus to go to school at 8:00 __________.
    6. The second-grade class has a snack at 10:00 __________.

Student Response

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Advancing Student Thinking

If students choose a.m. instead of p.m. or p.m. instead of a.m., consider asking: 
  • “Would this activity happen before or after noon?”
  • “Would this activity happen in the morning, afternoon, or evening?”

Activity Synthesis

  • “You had to decide if Elena walks her dog at 2:00 a.m. or p.m.”
  • “Explain your reasoning for your answer.” (2:00 p.m. because 2 a.m. is in the middle of the night. Most people would not walk their dog in the middle of the night.)
  • Point to the timeline display to show where 2:00 a.m. is on the diagram and explain that it is morning, but that we sleep during the early morning hours.
  • “Since the hours repeat twice a day, we need to say a.m. or p.m. to be clear about the time we mean.”

Activity 2: Tell Time with a.m. and p.m. (15 minutes)

Narrative

The purpose of this activity is for students to practice telling and writing time from an analog clock, using a.m. and p.m. Students are not expected to draw the hands on the clock precisely, but it is important that they think about the relative position of the hour hand based on the hour and the minutes that have passed. When students explain whether the time is a.m. or p.m. and how they draw the hour hand on the analog clock, they attend to precision (MP6).

Representation: Internalize Comprehension. Begin by having students recall the a.m. and p.m. linear representation from Activity 1 where breakfast, lunch and dinner were marked, and sleep time was shaded. Allow this to be used as a reference for students in this activity.
Supports accessibility for: Conceptual Processing, Memory

Launch

  • Groups of 2

Activity

  • “We have been looking at analog clocks and telling time based on where the hands are on the clock.”
  • “Now you are going to label activities with a.m. or p.m. Then draw a line to the digital clock that shows the time the activity could take place.”
  • “Then you will draw the hands on the clock to show the same time as the digital clock.”
  • “Use each clock only once.”
  • 3 minutes: independent work time
  • 5 minutes: partner work time

Student Facing

  • Label each activity with a.m. or p.m.
  • Draw a line to the time when the activity could take place.
  • Draw the hands on the clock to show the time.

activity

do homework ____________

get ready for bed ____________

eat lunch ____________

on the way to school ____________

in bed sleeping ____________

time

Digital clock displaying one-fifty.
Digital clock. Five minutes past twelve.
Digital clock. Four thirty-five.
Digital clock displaying 10 after 8.
Digital clock displaying seven fifty-five.

Student Response

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Advancing Student Thinking

If students do not explain their choices to their partner or give feedback on how they show the time, consider asking:
  • “Do you agree that this activity would happen in an a.m. time or p.m. time? Why or why not?”
  • “Do you agree or disagree with how your partner drew the hour and minute hand? Explain.”
  • “Do you have any suggestions for how your partner could draw the minute and hour hands to make it easier to read the time?”

Activity Synthesis

  • Invite students to share whether each activity would be a.m. or p.m.
  • Invite students to share the hour they chose and how they showed the time on the analog clock.
  • Consider asking:
    • “Why did you choose this time?”
    • “How did you decide where to draw the minute hand?”
    • “How did you decide where to draw the hour hand?”

Lesson Synthesis

Lesson Synthesis

“Today we learned that the hours in a day are split into 2 groups called a.m. and p.m. We learned that a.m. is usually thought of as morning and p.m. is thought of as afternoon and night.”

Display:

  • wake up
  • eat lunch
  • read a book before bed
  • brush teeth

“Tell your partner what time you might do each of these activities. Include a.m. or p.m. with the time.”

Share responses.

Cool-down: Represent the Time (5 minutes)

Cool-Down

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Student Section Summary

Student Facing

In this section, we learned to read clocks to tell and write time to the nearest 5 minutes. By counting by 5 starting at the number 1, we can tell the time in hours and minutes. We can also use half past, quarter past, or quarter till to tell time when the minute hand is in certain positions. To show the time of day, we use a.m. and p.m. when we tell and write time.

5 analog clocks.