Time

Explore the 4th Dimension! Many astronomers believe that time, like the universe itself, is about 14 billion years old. However, scientists and philosophers still do not agree on just what time is, even though our lives are ruled by it. It's only a matter of time before all children must learn how to 'tell time' because of its vital importance. Wonderful stories, fascinating facts, and terrific games abound about time. Check out these links on this timeless topic!

CD-ROMs

Franklin Learns Math: The Most Engaging Way to Introduce Math Skills: Franklin is the little turtle who can tie his shoe and count by twos. When kids join Franklin, they enter a magical world where turtles talk and fish fly. They learn about patterns, telling time, counting money, number recognition and addition and subtraction.

Trudy's Time & Place House: Five Exciting Activities Teach Time and Geography: Five activities challenge kids to build time-telling skills; develop mapping and direction skills; and "travel" the world learning about continents, oceans and landmarks.

Picture Books

The Completed Hickory Dickory Dock by Jim Aylesworth: Recounts the antics of a young mouse each hour after the clock strikes one.

Little Rabbit's First Time Book by Alan Baker: Follows busy rabbits through an active day of shopping and eating. Features clocks with movable hands that can be set to the time mentioned in the text.

What is P.B. Bear Doing? by Lee Davis: The reader is asked what P.B. Bear is doing at certain times of the day, and a clock face shows the time.

Telling Time with Big Mama Cat by Dan Harper: A cat describes her activities at various times throughout the day from morning to night.

What's the Time, Mr. Wolf by Carol Jones: In this story based on a schoolyard game, the farmyard animals ask Mr. Wolf what time it is, while he tries to lure them to come that eveing to a very special meal.

Little Mouse Has a Busy Day by Steve Lavis: Describes Little Mouse's busy day, from hour to hour, from waking up to going to sleep again.

My Grandmother's Clock by Geraldine McCaughrean: A child, wondering why Grandma doesn't have the grandfather clock in her house repaired, learns that there are many ways to measure time, from the moment it takes to blink an eye to the years shown in gray hairs.

Game Time by Stuart Murphy: Calendars and clocks keep track of passing time as the Huskies prepare for and compete in the championship soccer game against the Falcons.

Bear Child's Book of Hours by Anne Rockwell: For each hour of the day, Bear Child participates in a new activity, and as he does the reader sees the time on the clock.

Reader

It's Justin Time, Amber Brown by Paula Danziger: Unlike her best friend Justin, Amber Brown loves to measure time and hopes to receive a watch on her seventh birthday. (Also available in Audiocassette format.)

Fiction for 2-4th Graders

Magic Tree House Collection by Mary Pope Osborn: Siblings Jack and Annie travel through time and experience significant historical events.

Fiction for 4-6th Graders

Babe and Me, Jackie and Me and Shoeless Joe and Me by Dan Gutman: With his ability to travel through time using vintage baseball cards, Joe visits famous baseball players.

The Time Warp Trio by Jon Scieszka: In a series of books, Fred, Sam and Joe visit different times, cultures and famous people.

A Circle of Time by Marisa Montes: In 1996, a 14-year-old girl in a coma is forced back in time by a girl who died in 1906, and who needs help in righting a series of terrible wrongs.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Large Print Edition) by Mark Twain: The Connecticut Yankee is a 19th-century mechanic who suffers a blow to the head and wakes up in King Arthur's Britain.

Audiobook

The Ghost in the Mirror by John Bellairs: Rose Rita Pottinger and Mrs. Zimmermann are transported back to 1828 to save the Weiss family from being destroyed by a wicked wizard.

Poetry

Cold Stars and Fireflies by Barbara Esbensen: A collection of poems about nature and the changing seasons.

In For Winter, Out For Spring by Arnold Adoff: This collection of poems, told from the perspective of a young girl, celebrates family life throughout the yearly cycle of seasons.

Seasons: A Book of Poems by Charlotte Zolotow: Poems about seasons for young readers.

Informational Books

Chimp Math: Learning about Time from a Baby Chimpanzee by Anne Whitehead Nagda and Cindy Bickel: Follow Jiggs as he grows from a wobbly infant chimpanzee to a wild and wonderful toddler. Along the way you can learn about clocks, calendars, time lines, and other ways of keeping time records.

The Official M&M's Brand History of the Calendar by Larry Dane Brimner: Calendars do more than just tell you what day it is. They let you know what season it is, which holidays are coming up, and how much time has passed and more. Many cultures have invented calendars. Learn how these calendars work - or don't work!

Clocks: Building and Experimenting with Model Timepieces by Bernie Zubrowski: With this fun-filled science activity book, you will learn about the history of timekeeping. There are step-by-step instructions for constructing 12 different types of timepieces - from the very first clocks that told time by the sun's shadows, to water clocks and sandglasses, to today's complicated mechanical devices. All of them can be built from inexpensive materials found around the house.

The Story of Clocks and Calendars: Marking a Millennium by Betsy Maestro: Take a lively trip through time around the globe and back through history. Here is the story of timekeeping and how, over thousands of years, calendars and clocks came to be.

Telling Time by Jules Older: Find out why we tell time and how we tell time - on both analog and digital clocks. Older's humor along with lively pictures make learning how to tell time fun. Kids will be counting hours, minutes, and seconds in no time at all!

Videos

The Clock's Symphony (Videocassette): This animated video teaches children how to tell time while cultivating music appreciation.

Telling Time (Videocassette, Rock 'n Learn Series): This video covers: the parts of an analog clock; telling time to the hour, the half hour, the quarter hour, to five minutes, to the exact minute; counting by five; digital clocks and stopwatches; calendars, days of the week, and months of the year.

Websites

BBC History for Kids: This site offers a "Walk through time," which gives you a view of historical events - with a decidedly British flavor.

CBC4Kids: Time Section: This Canadian site looks to times past, giving events that happened on this day in history, an account of what the year Y1K (that's 1000 to you and me) was like, plus a view of the past, present and future on their Millenium page.

Calendars Through the Ages: Explore the story of how humans have attempted to organize our lives by the sun and stars.

Kids Online Resources - Time Tutorial: This site helps kids learn how to tell time on a radial clock, comparing to a digital clock readout.

The Official U.S. Time: The National Institute of Standards and Technology offers this site which can tell you the exact time (accurate to within a fraction of a second).

A Walk Through Time: "The Evolution of time measurement through the ages," according to the website host, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).