SWATCH OUT - A Monday Made It

Somebody else please say you remember swatches!
I think I remember having a blue one...or that was the one my sister had and I kept stealing it...hmmm...blanking out.

Anyway- I made these:

Which was inspired by this pin:


I've been thinking about how much I wanted to do this activity, but I didn't want the clocks to be a one time use.  I also wanted to be making sure the time was correct on the watch.  So this is what I ended up doing:

First off, I made the faces out of felt.  These were 27cents at Wal-Mart.  There's this sticker on the back of each, so I found a bottle cap that was about that size and traced it right on the sticker.  That way I could place the sticker where I wanted on the felt, and then cut around the sticker instead of having to draw on the felt.  I folded the felt in fourths, so I ended up with 24 circles per sheet.  For all the different times I want to do though, I needed 8 pieces of felt- so that's why there's quite the pile going on there.

Since I wanted watch bands that would last, I went with foam sheets.  I think this pack was 4 bucks, if I remember correctly.  And I didn't even end up using all of it.  I just needed 24 bands total, so I cut four each of six colors.  I also wanted them to attach with Velcro.  Now, here's a mistake I made, in that I was swayed by the look of see-through Velcro.  I did not pay attention to that it said "press and close" on it, and this means that you really have to press and click to get the band to stay on.  I am predicting that I will go out and get some standard Velcro dots and switch them out before the end of the summer.  I used my own wrist as a guide to put the Velcro on.  I made this decision for the benefit of my more chunky monkeys, so that they didn't have to deal with "My watch is too small!".  Little wristed folks can deal with the dangle, in my opinion.

My original idea was to draw all the clock faces on the felt, and even use puffy paint to make the clock hands interesting.  It was at this point that I was overcome with an attack of personality, and realized that "Heck that seems like a lot of work!"  Then I found these labels in my Dad's computer room, and when I put the felt circle on it, I saw that I could print two clock faces per label.  Went onto the internet and found a royalty free blank clock face and shazam!  Laziness behold!

So at this point, I am realizing that the see-through Velcro is not going to hold that felt in place.  But, (un)luckily for me, my parents have EVERYTHING in this house.  So off in a hidey hole I found regular Velcro.  I used the latchy hooky side only and set that on the top of the band after I had it clasped on my wrist.  You can see from the picture that it definitely grabs hold of the felt.  Side note- did you know the guy who invented Velcro designed it based off of how burrs stuck to his dog's coat?  Fascinating. To me, anyway.  Ok- so at this point you just have to stick on the sticker front with the time you wish drawn on.

I have my clock faces separated into the following pieces:
O'clocks - 24 watches, 12 hours repeated twice
Half hours- same deal
fifteen minutes- ditto
forty five minutes -ditto
Then I have split sets:
:05/:10 - 12 of each
:20/:25- same deal
:35/:40 - ditto
:50/:55 yeppers

All of my gear for this activity fits nicely inside my favorite size tote:

I have the clock faces separated in zip-locks. And the stickers are on the bottom for me to fill in as I need to.  Gotta have something for those teacher workday meetings, eh? Snarf.  Or I could possibly assign them to a non-existent parent helper. We shall see...

My plan is to start off just reviewing the hour- and then when we've got that down moving into the half hour- and then I can do a mixed review, and then introduce the fifteen minutes and so on and so forth.  And this got me thinking about this process.  How am I going to get the kids to accurately practice this skill and me be able to know if they got it or not?

So I made a recording sheet packet:

 

It ends up that I made sixty-nine recording sheets.  I wanted to account for the different ways the kids see the time.  So I have the words written out that they have to find, and also the digital.  And then I have mixed the digital and the words together.  Each time the students have to write where they find the time- and there are different options on how to use these- and then a place where they draw the hands for the analog time.  I also made up sheets for practicing "quarter after" and "quarter 'til" for those of you that want to really torture your little babes.

 

 

This is the basic layout.

I figure I can do this a few different ways- I can do a whole group social activity where they are each wearing a watch and have to go to different people and say simply. "Pardon me, do you have the time?" and the other student can only answer by showing his watch.

I can also make it slightly less chaotic by turning it into a game of scoot and putting one watch at each student space and having them travel the path. Quieter- but I do like the social interaction practice of the first choice.

And I also can make it into a write the room activity where during a center rotation they look around the room for watches and record their findings.  I was imagining quite a few moose stuffed animals sporting watches for this idea...

I also have a blank form so I can write in whatever skills my kids need to practice when it comes to a multiple time mixed review.

But I'm happy with the packet overall because I have the flexibility of picking how I want to play the game, and enough pre-made recording sheet options that I can keep the game fresh all year long. Kids can use the clipboards with it easily- and if we are doing the whole group social angle and they have trouble wearing the watch, they can always clip it to the clipboard to hold on to it.  Plus this is most likely how they will turn in their work- since I'll want to see who had which watch. Wooo- tongue twister.

Hot off the presses deal- first three commenters who leave an email address may have the packet for free.  Otherwise, you may find it in our TpT store.  Like those autumn themed kids and leaf paper?  Those are ours too, and you may find them here.

Make sure you check out all the other great stuff in the Monday Made It linky with Tara at Fourth Grade Frolics!

punctually yours,