Telling time worksheets grade 2: clock faces to read and fill in to five minutes, quarter hours in words, and a.m. or p.m. from a clue. Press Make a new sheet for new times, with the key on page 2.
Read the full guide
What 2nd grade telling time worksheets have to cover
Common Core states stop at the nearest five minutes in grade 2, with a.m. and p.m., and keep the nearest minute for grade 3. Texas asks for the minute in grade 2, so 2 sheets carry its name. England's Year 2 adds quarter past, quarter to and drawing the hands.
Why 7:50 gets read as 8:50
The minute hand follows one rule, counting by fives. The hour hand is harder, because it moves too. At 7:50 it is 5/6 of the way from the 7 to the 8, and a pupil who reads the nearest number writes 8:50. Hour hand first, then minute hand makes the pupil name the number the short hand has passed before writing a time.
Watch for 4:25 as quarter past 4: a quarter is 25 cents but 15 minutes. Shade the quarter hours shows why.
Digital minutes need 2 digits. Hand out Digital times with a zero: 3:05, not 3:5 the first time 3:5 turns up.
The a.m. and p.m. sheets print the words noon and midnight, never 12:00 a.m. or 12:00 p.m., which many style guides advise against.
Questions and answers
Why is the hour hand between two numbers?
A real clock puts it there: in 1 hour the hour hand creeps from one number to the next. Every face here places it exactly, so at 3:45 it is 3/4 of the way from the 3 to the 4, not on the 3.
How do you explain a.m. and p.m. to a child?
The hours from midnight to noon are a.m. and the hours from noon to midnight are p.m. Tie each to the pupil's day: breakfast is a.m., dinner is p.m. a.m. or p.m.? Everyday events does that in 12 sentences a page.
How many minutes is each number on a clock?
5 minutes. The minute hand counts by fives from the 12: the 1 means 5, the 6 means 30 and the 9 means 45. Minute hand numbers: 9 means 45 practices this on 20 lines with no clock faces.
All 29 sheet types
Read the clock to 5 minutes 7
Hour hand first, then minute hand3 blanks under each clock: the number the short hand has passed, the number the long hand is on, then the time. Short hand not quite at the 3, long hand on the 11, 11 × 5 = 55, so the time is 2:55 and not 3:55.
Minute hand numbers: 9 means 45No clock faces. Each line names the number the long hand points to and asks for the minutes, or gives the minutes and asks for the number. The long hand on the 9 means 9 × 5 = 45 minutes. It is counting by fives under another name.
Read the clock to 5 minutes12 clock faces with the long hand on a number every time. Short hand a little past the 4, long hand on the 7: count 7 fives, 7 × 5 = 35, so the time is 4:35. This is the Common Core grade 2 standard, 2.MD.7.
Show all 29 sheet types (26 more)
Read the clock to 5 minutes, continued
Read the clock with minute numbers on the rimA support face: small minute numbers 5, 10, 15 and on to 55 are printed outside the 1 to 12. The pupil reads the rim number at the tip of the long hand, so a long hand on the 8 reads 40 and the time is 1:40.
Read the clock with only 12, 3, 6 and 9A harder face with 4 numbers and a plain mark at every other hour, like many wall clocks. The second mark after the 9 is the 11, so a long hand there shows 11 × 5 = 55 minutes and the time is 6:55.
Read the clock: 5 to 30 minutes pastOnly the right-hand half of the face, where the short hand is still close to its own number. Short hand a little past the 9, long hand on the 4: 4 × 5 = 20, so the time is 9:20. A good first sheet.
Read the clock: 35 to 55 minutes pastOnly the left-hand half of the face, where the short hand is closer to the next number than to its own. At 7:50 the short hand is 5/6 of the way from the 7 to the 8, and the hour is still 7.
Draw the hands 4
Draw both hands to 5 minutes9 empty faces with a digital time under each. For 8:10 the long hand goes to the 2, because 2 × 5 = 10, and the short hand sits 1/6 of the way from the 8 to the 9. The key shows each finished clock.
Draw the hands from wordsThe time is given in words, such as 20 minutes past 4 or quarter to 6. Quarter to 6 is 5:45, so the long hand goes to the 9 and the short hand goes 3/4 of the way from the 5 to the 6.
Draw the hour hand onlyThe long hand is printed and the pupil adds the short one, which is where most of the thinking is. At 3:45 the short hand belongs 3/4 of the way from the 3 to the 4, not on the 3.
Draw the minute hand onlyThe short hand is already printed in the right place, so the pupil only has to find the minutes. For 6:25 the long hand goes to the 5, since 25 ÷ 5 = 5. Remind pupils to draw it long enough to reach the numbers.
Quarter past, half past and quarter to 4
Minutes past and minutes toFor times after the half hour, with no clock faces. 4:40 is 40 minutes past 4 and also 20 minutes to 5, because 60 − 40 = 20. The hour moves on by 1 when you say minutes to.
Quarter past, half past, quarter to: read the clockThe long hand is only ever on the 3, the 6 or the 9. On the 3 it shows 3 × 5 = 15 minutes, on the 6 it shows 30 and on the 9 it shows 45. The answer is written as a digital time, such as 2:45.
Shade the quarter hoursA face cut into 4 equal parts by a line from the 12 to the 6 and a line from the 9 to the 3. The pupil shades from the 12 round to the long hand. Quarter past fills 1 part of the 4, because 60 ÷ 4 = 15.
Write the time in wordsUnder each clock the pupil writes o'clock, quarter past, half past or quarter to, with a word bank at the top of the page. A clock showing 5:15 is quarter past 5 and a clock showing 8:45 is quarter to 9.
a.m. and p.m. 4
a.m. or p.m.? Clock and clueEach clock comes with a clue such as before school or after dinner, and the pupil writes the whole time. A clock showing 8:10 with the clue before school is 8:10 a.m.
a.m. or p.m.? Everyday eventsA sentence about the day with a time in it, and the pupil circles a.m. or p.m. Breakfast at 7:30 is a.m. and the end of school at 3:15 is p.m. No clock faces, and no sentence uses exactly 12:00.
One hour later or earlier, across noon and midnightA stretch sheet with no clock faces. About half the lines go forward and half go back. 1 hour after 11:20 a.m. is 12:20 p.m., and 1 hour before 12:20 a.m. is 11:20 p.m. The minutes stay the same, and a.m. and p.m. swap as the hour passes noon or midnight.
Put the day in order5 times with a.m. and p.m. to put in order, starting from midnight. 9:20 a.m. comes before 1:05 p.m. even though 9 is more than 1, because every a.m. time comes before every p.m. time. No clock faces.
Analog and digital 3
Digital times with a zero: 3:05, not 3:5Only o'clock and 5 past, the 2 kinds of time where the minutes need a zero. Long hand on the 1 means 5 minutes, written 3:05. Written as 3:5 it is marked wrong, and 3:50 is a different time.
Find the mistakeEach clock has an answer written beside it, and about half of the answers are wrong. The pupil marks each one and corrects it. A clock showing 6:45 with the answer 6:09 has the 9 read as minutes, when 9 × 5 = 45.
Which clock shows the time?A digital time and 3 clocks, only 1 of them right. For 7:50 the wrong clocks show 10:40, which is what you get with the hands swapped, and 8:50, with the short hand a whole hour too far on.
First grade warm-ups 3
First grade review: o'clock and half pastThe first grade skill, as a check before five minutes. At 4:00 the long hand is on the 12. At 4:30 it is on the 6, because half of the 60 minutes have gone: 60 ÷ 2 = 30.
Hours and minutes factsShort questions with no clock faces: minutes in an hour, in half an hour and in a quarter of an hour, and hours in a day. 60 ÷ 4 = 15 minutes in a quarter of an hour, and 2 × 12 = 24 hours in a day.
Where is the hour hand at half past?The long hand is printed on the 6 and the pupil draws the short one. At half past 7 it sits halfway between the 7 and the 8. A short hand drawn right on the 7 is the mistake to look for.
To the minute, for Texas classes 3
Between the fives: which two numbers?No clock faces. For 23 minutes the pupil writes that the long hand is between the 4 and the 5, since 4 × 5 = 20 and 5 × 5 = 25. It is the step that makes reading or drawing 23 minutes possible.
Draw the hands to the minute (Texas grade 2)For 1:48 find the 9 first, since 9 × 5 = 45, then count 3 small marks on: 45 + 3 = 48. The short hand goes 4/5 of the way from the 1 to the 2. 9 empty faces, each with all 60 minute marks.
Read the clock to the minute (Texas grade 2)Texas asks grade 2 for the nearest minute. Count by fives to the last number the long hand has passed, then count on by ones. Long hand 2 marks past the 7: 7 × 5 = 35 and 35 + 2 = 37, so the time is 10:37.
Review and daily practice 1
5 minutes later, 5 minutes earlierOne jump of the long hand from a number to the next, with no clock faces. 5 minutes after 2:55 is 3:00, because 55 + 5 = 60 and 60 minutes make the next hour. 5 minutes before 3:00 is 2:55.
How this list was compiled: Own list of sheet types, written 2026-09-18 and revised 2026-09-20. What each grade is asked to do was read in full on 2026-09-18 and is given here in our own words. Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, https://learning.ccsso.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Math_Standards1.pdf : 1.MD.3 is hours and half hours; 2.MD.7 is time to the nearest five minutes on analog and digital clocks, with a.m. and p.m.; 3.MD.1 is the nearest minute; 2.NBT.2 has skip counting by fives and 2.G.3 has circles cut into 2, 3 or 4 equal shares. Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, 19 TAC chapter 111 subchapter A, https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/ch111a.pdf : 1.7(E) is the hour and half hour; 2.9(G) asks grade 2 for time to the nearest minute, with a.m. and p.m. National curriculum in England, mathematics programmes of study, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-mathematics-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-mathematics-programmes-of-study : Year 2 tells and writes the time to five minutes, with quarter past and quarter to, draws the hands, and learns the minutes in an hour and the hours in a day. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Clock face, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_face , and a.m., p.m. and spoken times, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12-hour_clock , both read 2026-09-18: the hour hand moves from one hour mark to the next while the minute hand goes round once; a.m. runs from midnight to noon and p.m. from noon to midnight; many style guides prefer the words noon and midnight to 12 a.m. and 12 p.m.; 8:45 is quarter to nine. Every example time, wording and hand position was worked twice. Licence: own work