The HOUR Hand

The hour hand is the shortest hand on the clock. Whichever number it is pointing to or it is slightly past, that is the hour.

The MINUTE Hand

The minute hand is the longest hand on the clock. It will give you an exact number. Whichever number, or tick the minute hand lands on is the minutes for the time.

Counting by 5

When counting the minutes on a clock, you are able to count by 5's to quickly tell the time. Each number on the clock moves in 5 minutes spaces. So the number 1 on the clock really mean 5 minutes.

Telling time to the exact minute

It's easy to count the minutes by 5, but what happens when the minute hand lands on the little ticks between numbers? Each tick mark is equal to 1. There are 60 tick marks around the entire clock.

So how do I tell time?

When going to read a clock, you will look at the hour hand (short hand) first. Whatever number it is pointing to or slightly past is your hour. Then you will look at your minute hand (longer hand) and see exactly what number or tick mark it is pointing to. We read hours first, then minutes.