Goal: Predict what you can get done in a certain amount of time
Grades: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Group size: Any Time: 10 minutes or less (for making and checking predictions)
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Materials: Large sheet of paper Marker Prerequisites: none |
Tell children how much time they have to fill.
“We have 20 minutes left before outdoor time. What can you get done in 20 minutes?”
Record their predictions.
2. Fill the time
Stop partway through the time period, and ask if anyone wants to revise predictions.
Ten minutes have passed, and we’ve gotten through the dance once. Do you want to change your predictions?
When the time is up, children report what they accomplished and compare with their predictions.
Variations
Double Time (Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Ask children: “If you double the time, do you double what you can accomplish?” Then they try it.
Filling the Time with Reading (Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Children predict how many pages they can read aloud or how many poems they can recite in the given time.
Filling the Time with Crafts (Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Children predict how many friendship bracelets, paper chain links, or origami animals they can make in the given time.
Books and Other Resources
Book ideas to come!
Time sense for 10, 20, or more minutes
Throughout the day, children follow schedules that adults set: 15 minutes for snack; 30 minutes of outdoor time; 40 minutes for math. This activity provides children with a chance to pause and develop meaning for these blocks of time by connecting them to how much they can reasonably get done during a particular period of time.
The process that children go through in this activity—making and revising predictions about what they can do in a certain time, and then comparing predictions and results—helps them sharpen their time sense and provides a foundation for making realistic plans.
ConnectionsSetting realistic daily schedules
Setting schedules is a challenge for many adults and children. Success at school and at work relies on knowing how long things take. What can you really accomplish in one Saturday afternoon of housework? in a morning at the office? in an afternoon doing homework?
Children and teens juggle an increasing number of after-school and weekend activities: homework, sports, clubs, household chores, social life, and part-time jobs. Without a solid sense of how long things take, they may find themselves overscheduled and overwhelmed, without enough time to get everything done.
©2008 TERC, Cambridge, MA. All rights reserved.
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