Mary Grace has taught first grade for 8 years and has a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and is licensed in ESL.
Hooray! It's your first day of summer camp! This is your first time at overnight camp and you can't wait to get started. Your parents have left and you just got your schedule for your first day, but what does it mean? You have to be able to read your schedule and tell time to make sure you get to do all of your fun activities and get there on time!
 |
There are two items that MUST be on every schedule- a start time and an event or activity. The time is usually right next to the event, and in your schedule, the time of the event is in the column to the left of the activity. Your first event is breakfast. Since the time next to breakfast says 7:30 a.m., this means that you must be at breakfast by 7:30 or you will be late.
Analog clocks, the clocks with the moving hands, have a minute hand and an hour hand. Some analog clocks might also have a second hand. The second hand moves one tick every second (remember there are 60 seconds in a minute), and in the image below can be seen on the 3. The minute hand moves one mark a minute, and the hour hand moves from one number to the next every hour.
 |
The time on the clock on the image above is 5:00, or 5 o'clock. We can see this because the hour hand (the short hand) is on the 5. Also, the minute hand is on the 12, which always represents the start of the hour or zero minutes, as seen in 5:00.
Starting at the 12, every number the long hand, or the minute hand, passes is equal to five minutes. So if the time were 5:30 instead of 5:00, the minute hand, or the long hand, would be on the 6 to show that the minutes are half past, or 30 minutes past, the hour of 5.
 |
Reading a digital clock is a lot easier. There is a number before the colon (:) and a number after the colon. You just read the number before the colon (the hour) and then the number after the colon (the minutes).
The letters a.m. stand for ante meridiem, which means 'before noon' in Latin, an ancient language. Some of your other activities will have p.m. listed. P.m. stands for post meridiem, which means 'after noon' in Latin. The first minute in the p.m. time block is 12:00 or noon, and midnight starts the a.m. time block. On your first day at camp, all the activities before lunch are going to be a.m. times, or morning times. All of the activities after lunch will be p.m. times, or afternoon times.
Elapsed time is a fancy way of saying how much time has passed or how long an activity will last. You can use your time schedule to figure this out. Let's look at our schedule: free time is listed from 3:00-5:00. This means that it will start at 3:00 and end at 5:00. You can figure out how much free time you'll have by subtracting the start time hour from the end time hour. In other words, 5 - 3 = 2, so you'll have 2 hours.
Sometimes activities are not in hour increments, like swimming, which is from 12:30-2:00. When you see this, you can figure out that it will be 30 minutes from 12:30-1:00. Then subtract the end time from the remaining hour, which gives us 2 - 1 = 1. So, you'll have swimming for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
You've learned how to read and understand your camp schedule by using an analog and a digital clock. You also learned the difference between a.m. (before noon) and p.m. (after noon), and we studied elapsed, or passed, time. Now it's time for you to begin your camp adventure! Have fun!
To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member.
Create your account
Already a member? Log In
BackAlready registered? Log in here for access
Did you know… We have over 200 college courses that prepare you to earn credit by exam that is accepted by over 1,500 colleges and universities. You can test out of the first two years of college and save thousands off your degree. Anyone can earn credit-by-exam regardless of age or education level.
To learn more, visit our Earning Credit Page
Not sure what college you want to attend yet? Study.com has thousands of articles about every imaginable degree, area of study and career path that can help you find the school that's right for you.
Back To Course
3rd-5th Grade Math: Practice & Review37 chapters | 252 lessons
{{courseNav.course.topics.length}} chapters | {{courseNav.course.mDynamicIntFields.lessonCount}} lessons | {{course.flashcardSetCount}} flashcard set{{course.flashcardSetCoun > 1 ? 's' : ''}}
Watch 5 minute video clips, get step by step explanations, take practice quizzes and tests to master any topic.
Study.com has a library of 750,000 questions and answers for covering your toughest textbook problems
I love the way expert tutors clearly explains the answers to my homework questions. Keep up the good work!
- Maritess, College StudentStudy.com video lessons have helped over 30 million students.
"I learned more in 10 minutes than 1 month of chemistry classes"
- Ashlee P.
"I learned more in 10 minutes than 1 month of chemistry classes"
- Ashlee P.
"I aced the CLEP exam and earned 3 college credits!"
- Clair S.
Over 65 million users have prepared for {{displayNameByProductKey[registrationData.product || testPrepCocoon]}} and other exams on Study.com
"The videos have changed the way I teach! The videos on Study.com accomplish in 5 minutes what would take me an entire class."
- Chris F.
Over 65 million users have prepared for {{displayNameByProductKey[registrationData.product || testPrepCocoon]}} and other exams on Study.com
