Understand How to Convert Between 12 and 24-Hour Times

We all need to be able to tell the time so that we can make sure that we are in the right place at the right time!

Being able to tell the time also helps us to know what is going on around us!

There are different ways we can find out the time - clocks, watches, mobile phones, we can even call the speaking clock!

In this activity, we are going to learn how to tell the time on a 24-hour digital clock.

Facts we need to know:

There are 24 hours in 1 day

There are 60 minutes in 1 hour

There are 60 seconds in one minute

Here is a digital clock face.

The time on the clock is 10:15. 

This means it is 15 minutes past 10 o'clock.

The first two digits show the hour.

The next two digits show the minutes.

We can read the time in different ways.

We can read this clock as:

15 minutes past 10

Ten fifteen

A quarter past 10

These are all correct.

We need to know the relationship between the times on a 12-hour clock and a 24-hour clock.

00:00 is 12 am (midnight)

01.00 - 11:00 is 1 am - 11 am (through the night until mid-morning)

12:00 is 12 pm (lunchtime)

13:00 is 1 pm (end of lunchtime)

13: 00 - 23:00 is 1 pm - 11 pm (afternoon through and past bedtime)

Top Tip:  To convert from 12-hour to 24-hour, we can simply add 12 (1 pm = 1 + 12 = 13:00)

Refer back to this if you need help with the questions by clicking on the red help button on the screen.