Paper Clock Craft
Learn how to tell time with this awesome paper clock craft with a free template! When you’re done, check out this alphabet card game. This post contains affiliate links.
What’s better than a fun arts and crafts project?
A fun arts and crafts project that also helps kids learn real skills!
Y just learned how to tell analog time and it’s a very valuable skill. In fact, we have a tradition, passed down from my parents, that when a child learns how to tell time, we buy them a real watch! That way they get to practice hands-on.
In this post, you’ll learn how you can create your own interactive clock for teaching or playing, using inexpensive, everyday supplies. Sure, you can buy a similar clock at any educational supply store and maybe even the dollar store – but we all know that things you make yourself are so much more engaging!
Why you should teach kids to tell analog time
Some people may feel that learning to tell time on an analog clock is an obsolete exercise that isn’t necessary now that digital clocks are so available. While it’s true that kids can recite the time more easily when reading from a digital clock or watch, analog time-telling is a unique and very valuable skill.
Digital timekeepers are very abstract since they only feature numbers. Analog clocks better represent the passage of time as you watch the hands move. They also help look at time in context – you can clearly visualize how 15 minutes are a quarter of an hour, for example, while on a digital clock it’s just…more numbers.
Which brings us to the next step – after teaching kids to tell time in the first place, I like to use this type of model clock to teach kids how to plan time. If they have an hour available between school and dinner, they can divide up the clock face to show how much of the time they want to spend snacking, reading, or playing.
Moving the hands on the practice clock can help them visualize how their plan will work in real life.
On the opposite end of the learning spectrum, kids who are not yet ready to tell time can use this clock to learn numbers and counting. While you’re working on the craft activity together, you can talk about and count the numbers as you color them and glue them onto the clock.
Then hang the clock on a wall in the area where they tend to play pretend (play house, school, store, etc) so they can continue to refer to it as they play.
While you can make this as a gift or tool ready for a child to play or learn with, this is a craft that children can make themselves to help get them invested in learning to tell time. Depending on the child’s age and fine motor skills, you might need to present them with pre-cut pieces and help them position the numbers correctly.
Most kids will need help with the final steps of connecting the parts with a metal brad (also known as a split pin paper fastener. It’s the one you push through layers of paper and then spread apart in back to hold it in place while allowing the papers to rotate around.)
If you’ll be cutting out the numbers, you can make the activity more engaging for the child by letting them paint or color the numbers instead of cutting them from colored paper. Older children can choose whether to trace the numbers onto colored paper and then cut, or if they prefer to color them with paint, markers, or crayons.
You can also enhance this project by creating a border or frame for the clock and decorating it with any embellishments you have available – you can make a simple border with ribbon, a glitzy one with glitter glue, or any pattern or design with pompoms, sequins, buttons, or whatever you have handy. Consider placing pompoms or buttons around the edge next to each number for an added tactile effect, giving early learners something concrete to count as they learn to associate the numerals with the number they’re counting.
What you need
- Colored paper
- Cardstock for the handles
- Thin cardstock or thick cardboard (or both, for extra strength!)
- Pencil
- Glue
- Markers or pens
- Paper fastener (brad/split pin)
- Optional: button and/or other embellishments
- Clock parts template (download at the end of this post)
How to make the paper clock craft
1. Cut out the numbers from the template and trace them onto the colors of your choice. Cut out the numbers in color. (Alternatively, you can print them onto white cardstock and color them yourself with crayons, markers, or paint)
2. Trace a big circle onto cardstock. Lay out the numbers to make sure it’s big enough to use for your clock! Then cut out the circle.
If you don’t have a color of cardstock that you like, you can make a circle out of regular colored paper and glue it to cardboard.
3. If you want your clock to be stronger than cardstock, trace the same circle onto cardboard, foam, or additional sheets of cardstock and glue it to the back of your first circle.
4. Use a pencil to lightly mark the positions of the numbers on the clock. You can use a real clock as your guide. If you don’t have one, start with a mark at the top. Then make one directly across from it on the bottom. Next, make a mark on the farthest left point, and directly across from it on the right. Now you have the four main points, and you can estimate the position for the other numbers in between those.
5. Glue the numbers 3, 6, 9, and 12 onto the clock. These numbers are the easiest to position and will help guide you to the right positions for the remaining numbers.
6. Glue the numbers 1 and 2 in between the 12 and 3.
7. Fill in the remaining numbers the same way.
8. Use a marker to outline or accent each number if you’d like.
9. Get ready for the next step with your cut-out clock hands and brad fastener.
10. Use any sharp tool (adults only) to make a hole in the center of the clock and in the circle at the end of each hand.
11. Place the longer hand on top of the shorter hand, and use the brad (paper fastener) to attach them to the clock.
Download the Paper Clock Craft Template
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