Daily routines & time 1 lesson plan

“What time is it?”

Lesson 10 Level 3 Age 7-9

Lesson plans for ESL kids teachers

Lesson 10

Daily routines & time 1

This lesson plan introduces telling the time and talking about daily routines. Students learn to say the the hourly time and say what they usually do with the time. They also play fun time-related games and read a funny story.

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Age: 7-9 years
Time: 1 hour – 1 hour 20 mins
Objectives: Saying the time, describing daily routines.
Structures: “What time is it?”, “Please could you tell me the time?”, “It’s [4] o’clock”, “What time do you [get up]?”, “I [get up] at [7] o’clock”.
New vocabulary: eleven, twelve, clock, get up, eat breakfast, go to school, eat lunch, leave school, eat dinner, go to bed.
Review vocabulary: Monday ~ Sunday, weather and daily routines vocabulary from previous lessons, numbers 1-10.

Lesson materials

Flashcards:

Reader review cards – Days of the week
Daily routines (get up, eat breakfast, go to school, eat lunch, leave school, eat dinner, go to bed)
Numbers 1-10

Printables:

Clock craft sheet
My day worksheet
What time is it? worksheet
What time is it? reader worksheet

Readers:

What time is it?

Supplies:

name tags for each student
board with markers / chalk
empty plastic bottle (for the spin the bottle game)
weather board (from previous class)
one set of cards with the numbers 1-10 written on them
clock (or make a clock using our craft sheet)
stopwatch (or timing app on a phone)
glue, scissors and fasteners for the clock craft

Notes:

In this lesson students learn to tell the time to the nearest hour. They also discuss their daily routines using some simple present tense verb phrases.

Lesson procedure:

Warm up and maintenance:

1. Greetings and name tags
Greet the students as they enter the classroom and gesture for them to sit down. Before class prepare some blank name tags (stickers or pin-on tags). Give these out and have everyone write their names and put their tags on. If you use pin-on tags, you can keep and give out every class.

2. Play “Spin the bottle”
Let’s review previous lessons with this fun game. Sit everyone in a circle with a bottle in the middle. Teacher spins the bottle. When it stops spinning the student it is pointing to has to answer a question. If the answer is correct, then that student can spin the bottle. Either the teacher or the student spinning the bottle can ask the questions.

Round 1:
Numbers 1-10 and classroom objects / stationery, e.g. “How many tables are there?”, “There are 6 tables”.

Round 2:
Likes & dislikes for food and drink – “Do you like milk?”, “Yes, I do / No, I don’t”.

Round 3:
Clothes – “What are you wearing?”, “I’m wearing a t-shirt and jeans”.

Round 4:
Clothes and weather – “What do you wear on rainy days?”, “I wear a coat and boots”.

Round 5:
Days of the week – say all the days in the correct order.

3. Homework check
Check each student’s homework that you set in the last lesson. Ask each student some questions about their homework worksheet (e.g. “How was the weather on Friday?”, “What clothes did you wear on Sunday?”, “What did you eat and drink on Tuesday?”), give lots of praise, and then put some kind of mark on the homework sheet (e.g. a sticker, a stamp or draw a smiley face).

Finally, tell your students to put their homework back into their bags.

4. Talk about the weather using the “Weather board”
Use the weather board that you created in the previous class. Ask, “How’s the weather today?” and have students put up their hands. Allow one weather condition per student (e.g. “It’s rainy”) and have each student come up and put a weather picture on the weather board.

Depending on weather conditions, you can introduce more weather words (with pictures … you can get students to draw them), such as:

stormy
misty
showery

freezing
humid
frosty

icy
drizzly

5. Review days of the week and weekly routines
You’ll need one set of days cards that you made in the previous lesson. Stick the cards on the board in random order – ask which card is Monday and then put it at the top of the board. Ask individual students to come to the board and put the rest the day cards in order (from Monday through to Sunday). End by having a fun contest – challenge your students to say the days of the week in order as fast as possible – the fastest student is the winner! Use a stopwatch to time each student.

Now we’ll review some of the weekly routines from the reader in the last class. Before class, print out the cards “Reader review cards – Days of the week”. These show what the boy and girl did in the story on different days of the week. Can your students remember what they did on those days?

Hold up the first card and read the text “I like Mondays because …” – ask your students if they can remember what he likes doing on Mondays. Then show the next card to reveal the answer but keep the text at the bottom folded in case they can’t remember the phrase in English. Finally, unfold the text to show the full answer.

6. Review numbers 1-10
You’ll need a set of cards with the numbers 1-10 on. Hold up the number cards in order from 1-10, and quickly elicit each number in order, each time lay the card down on the floor, face up. By the end, you’ll have the 10 cards spread out on the floor.

Sit everyone in a circle on the floor around the cards and tell them to close their eyes. Take away one card and say, “Open your eyes”. Students have to quickly check and say which number is missing – the fastest student to give the correct answer wins a point. Continue for all the numbers.

Finally, get everybody standing up. Say some actions with numbers (e.g. “jump – 8 times!”) and everybody has to do the actions. Other actions can include:

hands up & down
turn around
hop
crouch down
touch your nose
sit down & stand up
clap
[hide_on_uk]stomp[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]stamp[/hide_on_us] your feet
star jump

New learning and practice:

1. Introduce a clock and the numbers 11 & 12
You’ll need to bring in a clock (if there isn’t one in your classroom) or alternatively make a craft clock using our clock craft sheet. Elicit and chorus the word “clock”. Then point to the numbers 1-10, eliciting each number (you can move the hour hand around as you do this). When you get to 11 and 12, elicit / teach these numbers and chorus x3.

2. Write the numbers 1-12 on the board
Along the top of the board write the numbers in order 1-12. Divide the class into teams and get each team to elect a representative to write on the board. Have these students come to the board and tell them they are going to race to write and say the numbers 1-12. The winner will win a point for their team. Say “Ready – steady – go!” and the students race to write and say the numbers as they are writing them. Then get another student from each team to race against each other, and so on until everyone has had a turn. At the end the team with the most points is the winner.

3. Teach the time vocabulary
Hold up your clock and set a time (e.g. 4 o’clock). Ask the class, “What time is it?”. Elicit / teach, “It’s 4 o’clock”. Move the hand to another time and ask again (you can also ask “Please could you tell me the time?”). Go through the hours eliciting the times from the class until they have got the hang of the structures.

4. Do the “Clock craft” sheet
Before class print out the clock shape craft sheet – enough so that each student has one. You can either cut out the shapes before class or have your students cut out the shapes in class. You will also need fasteners for each clock to fasten the arms to the clock.

After constructing the clocks, put students in pairs. First model the activity with a student: Student A sets a time on his/her clock and asks, “What time is it?” or “Please could you tell me the time?”. Their partner answers, “It’s _ o’clock”. Each pair takes turns to ask each other the time.

Students will need these clocks in future lessons, so if you can, keep them in your classroom.

5. Read classroom reader “What time is it?”
By now your students will have had a good amount of practice telling the time so we can reinforce the new phrases with a fun story. Before class, download and print off the reader “What time is it?”. As you go through each page, point to the clocks in each picture and elicit the times they are showing, for example:

Teacher: (reading from page 1) “One day Colin Clock met his friend, Ana clock” … Which one do you think is Colin Clock?
Students: The blue one!
Teacher: Yes, that’s right. (pointing at the clocks) … This is Colin Clock and this is Ana Clock. What [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] is Ana Clock?
Students: Pink!
Teacher: Yes, pink! (reading from page 1) “Oh dear!”, said Colin Clock. “What time is it?” … Let’s look. What time is Colin Clock showing? (pointing at Colin Clock)
Students: 3 o’clock!
Teacher: Good Job! And how about Ana Clock? (pointing at Ana Clock)
Students: 7 o’clock!
Teacher: Yes! But they both have different times! (Teacher looks puzzled). (Reading on …) “Let’s ask Tom Clock” … etc.

Continue through the story, asking for the times. Get the students really involved in the story by asking lots of questions (e.g. about the clock [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us]) and even ask yes/no questions about the times on the clocks (making mistakes, of course), for example:

Teacher: (reading from page 3) ““Hello Tom Clock!”, said Ana Clock. “What time is it?”” … What time is Tom Clock showing? Is it 2 o’clock?
Students: No!
Teacher: No? Well, what time is it? (pointing at Tom Clock)
Students: 1 o’clock!
Teacher: Is it? (Looking more closely). Oh, yes it is! Well done! etc.

After reading the story, give out a reader worksheet to each student and read through the story one more time (without stopping for questions, etc.) as students the write the order that the clocks appear in the story and the times they show on their faces. Then go through the answers as a class.

Alternatively, watch our video version of the reader (Internet connection required).

6. Read and write time
This segment can be part of all your lessons. Spend 10 to 15 minutes building up your students’ writing and reading skills. You’ll need to assess your students’ reading/writing level and then choose to start at one of the following stages:

Reading and writing activities by level:

1. Beginners: students cannot read or write the alphabet.
Each lesson introduce 3 lower-case letters of the alphabet (first lesson will be a, b, c). Use flashcards to do this. Play alphabet games and do printing worksheets.
» See our ‘Alphabet a-z (lowercase)’ mini-lesson plans for full details.

2. Early starters: students have experience with the alphabet but need phonics practice.
Each lesson introduce 5 lower-case letters of the alphabet (first lesson will be a, b, c, d, e). Use flashcards to do this. Start by working on the sounds of the letters and then move onto letter clusters (e.g. sh, ee, etc).
» See our ‘Alphabet’ and ‘Letter clusters’ mini-lesson plans for full details.

3. Early readers.
Work on reading and writing simple sentences with lots of practice activities.
» See our ‘Early reading’ mini-lesson plans for full details. (click on “Early reading” tab)

4. Elementary readers: students can read and write simple sentences well.
Work on reading and writing short texts and stories.
» See our ‘Reading short texts’ mini-lessons for full details. (click on “Reading short texts” tab)

7. Introduce daily routines vocabulary
Let’s teach some simple phrases so that your students can talk about their daily routines. Before class, print off the daily routines flashcards. Shuffle them into a random order and then elicit / teach each one and chorus x3. Each time stick the card to the board.

Once all the cards are on the board, invite students up to the board put them in order of a day, which will be:

get up → eat breakfast → go to school → eat lunch → leave school → eat dinner → go to bed

8. Do the “My day” worksheet
Hold up the worksheet and model what to do – write the missing words in the first routine (get up) and fill in a time on the clock. For today, only put the time to the nearest hour. Give out a worksheet to each student and have your students complete their worksheets – explain that they only need to put the times to the nearest hour. Circulate as they are working, helping and asking questions.

Finally, put students into pairs, and have them swap sheets. Write on the board “What time do you …?” and model with a student asking questions and giving answers about their routines. Then have pairs ask each other questions and give answers.

Wrap up:

1. Assign homework: “What time is it?”
Hold up the homework worksheet and model writing the numbers to match the clocks to the times.

Give out the worksheets and say, “Put your homework in your bags”.

2. Do “Quick check” and say goodbye
Time to leave the class. Make sure everything is put away and the students have gathered their belongings. Have them line up at the door and place yourself between the door and the students.

For each student check a time by holding up a clock (such as the craft clock) and asking, “What time is it?” – make sure a full answer is given (e.g. “It’s 6 o’clock”).

When they give you the correct answer say goodbye and let them leave. If their answer is wrong, have them go back to the end of the line – they will have to try again once they reach the front!