Half and Quarter Hours

"Ahhh what a perfect day to relax at the beach. "What are you writing, Freddie?" "A list of things to remember! We have to make the most of this BEAUTIFUL day!" "I even brought my watch so we can keep track of the time." Zuri and Freddie can use their watch to tell the time and know when they need to do things. "Exploring Time: How long is half an hour and quarter of an hour?" There are many different ways that we can read a clock to tell what time it is. Today we will be finding out how long half an hour is as well as how long quarter of an hour is. Let's start with half an hour. How long IS that? We know that an hour is sixty minutes long, and half an hour is HALF of that. Half of sixty is thirty, so, half an hour is thirty minutes. Let's see how Freddie and Zuri are doing with their list. "Those sandwiches were so good, Zuri!" "Thank you! It's my secret recipe, and now that we've eaten we can finally go and swim!" "Hang on, we can't swim right now, we have to wait half an hour after we eat." Zuri and Freddie need to use their watch to find out when they can go swimming again. If they finished eating at ten past one and need to wait half an hour, when can they go swimming again? Remember half an hour is thirty minutes, so we can count forwards thirty minutes from 1:10 to find out when they can go swimming again. Let's count together! Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty. We counted forwards thirty minutes and ended on the time 1:40 or twenty to two. So, Zuri and Freddie can go swimming at 1:40. Zuri and Freddie ALSO need to put sun cream on every half an hour. Remember half an hour is equal to thirty minutes. We can count forwards thirty minutes to find out when Zuri and Freddie need to put sun cream on. If they put sun cream on at ten to two, when should they put on some more?

If we count forward thirty minutes from 1:50, we land on 2:20 or twenty past two. That means that Zuri and Freddie need to put sun cream on again at twenty past two. Next, let's look at quarter of an hour. What is quarter of an hour? We divided the clock in half to find thirty minutes, or half an hour. We can divide the halves AGAIN and now we have four parts that we call quarters. If we divide the hour into quarters, or into four equal parts, we find that quarter of an hour equals fifteen minutes Freddie and Zuri need to drink water every quarter of an hour to stay hydrated while they are out in the hot sun. If they last drank water at half past two, when should they drink water next? Remember quarter of an hour is fifteen minutes. What time will it be quarter of an hour after half past two?

If we count forwards fifteen minutes in steps of five, we get to 2:45 or quarter to three. So, Zuri and Freddie need to drink water again at quarter to three. Before we check in on Zuri and Freddie, let's summarise. Today we learned how long half an hour is as well as how long quarter of an hour is. Remember, half an hour is equal to thirty minutes. And quarter of an hour is equal to fifteen minutes. We also explored counting forwards in fives around the clock to find out what time Freddie and Zuri needed to do the things on their list. Now, let's see what Zuri and Freddie are up to. It looks like they fell asleep while relaxing! At least they put enough sun cream on!