Seconds, Minutes, or Hours?

Every year when we start our unit on time I'm reminded that at their young age, most 1st graders are unaware of the concept of time.  It's kinda funny to pre-assess their concept of time by asking them to guess the duration of one minute.  Have you ever asked them to put their heads down and close their eyes while you watch the time?  You direct the students to raise their hand with their eyes closed when they think a minute has passed by.  In my 9 years of teaching I think I may have had maybe 8 students who already knew that there are 60 seconds in one minute and used this information to come close to the minute mark.  As I watch for those little hands to pop up it sometimes only takes a matter of seconds before a hand is raised!  There are also a few hands that never pop up when I cut off the experiment about 2 minutes into the wait.  We forget how we had to train ourselves and our sense of time as we were growing up.

That's why I created this little pocket chart center!  So students could contemplate, practice, and train their minds to understand the concept of time.  At this center students will need to sort activities that take either a few seconds, minutes, or hours.  They will also come up with a few activities of their own to sort.

Enjoy!