ClockTo 5 minutes
Name: Date:
Look at each clock. Follow the short hour hand and the long minute hand, then write the time.
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Tell time to five minutes worksheets
After the quarter hour, a clock is read in fives — the minute hand counted round the face in groups of five. These free printable sheets show six clocks set to the nearest five minutes and ask for the digital time.
Kid stuck on one? You don’t just get the sheet.
Tell time to five minutes
The answer key prints on a separate page.
What's on this sheet
Reading to five minutes is where the minute hand stops landing on the four familiar quarters and starts pointing anywhere on the dial. The child counts by fives from the twelve — 5, 10, 15, up to 55 — to read the minutes, then checks the short hour hand between the numbers. Every clock here places both hands exactly, so the answer is read, not estimated.
Why this sheet works
The six clocks spread across the hour and across different hours, so no two answers repeat and the page cannot be finished by copying one reading down. Saying each time two ways — 3:35, or twenty-five to four — ties the face to the language a child hears at home and in class.
How this one works
One question from this sheet, worked through a step at a time.
Read the clock
short hand:the hour
long hand:the minutes
past3→ hour is3
points at:9
count in fives:5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45
hour:3
minutes:45
3:45
- Two hands, and they are read on two different scales — so take them one at a time, short hand first.
- The short hand is nearly at the 4 — and that is the trap. The hour is the number it has PASSED, not the one it is heading for. It has passed the 3, so it is 3 something.
- Now the long hand, pointing at the 9. That 9 is an HOUR number — for minutes each one is worth five, so count round in fives: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45.
- Hour 3, minutes 45 — 3:45.