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Device Series, No. 1.

THE

BLACKBOARD CLOCK,

Device

Desk Book For The Primary Teacher,

For teaching pupils in First Year and Kindergarten Grades how to tell the time of day by the clock,

And Time Drill.

BY

EVA ALDRICH.

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Draw a circle, about a foot in diameter, on the blackboard, in a convenient place where it may remain. Place a dot in the center. Inside the circle place the figures, hour and minute marks as you have them on the face of your watch or clock.

If the clock is to be made on a wooden blackboard it will be best to have slips cut from tin for the hour and minute hands, and fastened to the center of the face with a slender screw; but if the board is of hard finish, and a screw of any kind will not answer, the next best plan will be to cut the hands from hard, white pasteboard and fasten them in place by means of a long pin, using a hard piece of pasteboard, cut round, for a washer.

Exercise care to have the minute hand long enough to reach exactly to the minute spaces, and the hour hand to the hour figures only.

The clock is thus made ready for use, though it will be made more attractive by drawing lines representing a case about the face in colored crayon. A smooth board having the dimensions of twelve by twenty inches, or thereabout, may be painted and prepared to represent a clock.

An old clock with a worn out movement answers still better for the purpose than the blackboard clock.

First,—Teach the pupils to count to sixty.

Develop the idea of, and teach the pupils to write the Roman and Arabic numbers to twelve inclusive.

Teach the pupils that sixty minutes make an hour.

Review by careful questioning that which was done at previous exercises.

Develop all ideas as far as possible by questioning the pupils.

Tell the Pupils That:

The little spaces around the face of the clock are named minutes.

The big hand is the minute hand and it counts the minutes.

There are sixty little minutes around the face of the clock which the minute hand has to count.

The figures are named hours.

The little hand is the hour hand and it points out the hours.

The minute hand reaches clear to the minutes, and the hour hand touches only the hours.

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Teach The Hour.

When the hour hand points to figure 1, it is one o’clock.

When the hour hand points to figure 2, it is two o’clock.

When the hour hand points to figure 3, it is three o’clock, etc.

Twelve is the home hour.

It is where the two hands live, yet they are always going.

They never go backward.

They always start away from home and go around back home again.

They always get home together at dinner time, that is, twelve o’clock, and again in the middle of the night, midnight, or twelve o’clock again.

Exercise I.

Send a pupil to the blackboard clock with a pointer; have him point to one o’clock, two o’clock, etc.

Let others do the same, but do not continue till the attention of the class wavers.

Let pupils count the minutes, by turns, each commencing where the one preceding him left off, always following the course of the hands of a clock.

Tell the Pupils That:

It is not our work to do the pointing nor the counting. The hour and minute hands on the face of a clock always do that to tell us what time it is.

The minute hand counts the minutes, and the hour hand points to the hours.

When the hour hand points to 1, it is one o’clock.

When the hour hand points to 2, it is two o’clock, etc.

Let us play it is dinner time. The hour and minute hands are home together, ready to start out and go around again. They are always ready to go and they always go the right way. They never go the wrong way. The minute hand goes all the way around, counts all the minutes and gets back home while the hour hand goes to only one figure, and then we know it is one o’clock, because the hour hand is pointing to it. The minute hand gets home just at the same time that the hour hand points to any hour.

There are twelve hours on the face of the clock.

It takes the hour hand a long time, twelve hours, to get home, but the minute hand gets home as soon as it counts the minutes all round the face of the clock.

Exercise II.

The teacher places the hands, each time stopping the hour hand at the right hour, and the minute hand at the twelve o’clock, or home hour, and having the pupils tell what time it is, individually.

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Exercise III.

Send a pupil to the board; let him as the teacher dictates, make it one o’clock, two o’clock, etc. Let others do the same. Never continue for a minute with flagging interest and attention.

Drill until the pupils all see that the minute hand goes all the way around every time the hour hand goes from one hour to another.

Teach The Half Past.

Tell the pupils:—When the hour hand gets past a number, half way to the next number, the minute hand has counted half the minutes and is half way home.

Exercise IV.

Place the hands, at the half past marks, and let pupils tell individually what time it is.

Let pupils place the hands at the half past marks as the teacher dictates.

The Quarter Hour.

Develop the quarter past and quarter of by the same devices used for developing the half past.

Combine the hour, half hour and quarter hour exercises.

The Minutes.

The minutes past and minutes of may be taught by various methods, according to the ability of the pupils.

Many exercises may be devised by the teacher besides these here given.

Show The Pupils That:

The minute hand counts all the minutes while the hour hand goes from one hour to another.

The minute hand goes twelve times as fast as the hour hand.

The minute hand counts twelve minutes while the hour hand is going past one minute.

Exercise V.

Play it is dinner time, and the two hands are home together again, but they cannot stop, for it is their duty to always keep going.

Now we find the hour hand has gone past just one minute. It did not say anything about the minute nor even point at it because it never does do that. It just went past twelve, the home hour, and then past one minute.

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What did the minute hand do?

It counted twelve minutes.

Then what time does the big minute hand tell us that it is?

It tells us that it is twelve minutes after, or past twelve.

Show The Pupils That:

The minute hand gets home twelve times as often as the hour hand.

The minute hand starts from home just when the hour hand starts from an hour.

The number of minutes from home to the minute hand is what the minute hand has counted each time, and it shows the time, or minutes past an hour.

The number of minutes from the minute hand around to home again is what the minute hand will have to count each time, and it shows the time or minutes to an hour, or of an hour.

Exercise VI.

Drill in placing hands for pupils to tell the time.

Dictate for pupils to place hands.

One of the main objects of time drill in the schoolroom is to aid in effecting order.

Decorum acquired from time drills in the schoolroom characterize pupils on the streets, in public meetings, and in society everywhere.

The following time drills are very beneficial: Exercises in timing pupils’ work and plays.

Training pupils to keep time to martial music by beating stepping or other movements.

One that little ones particularly enjoy is to hipity-hop in time to martial music.

Any exercises in stepping, beating or counting time.

Beating the measures while practicing the natural scale in music.

Practicing kindergarten plays in time to music or singing.

Thorough training in school tactics. All school tactics tend toward developing the faculty, time. For this reason the teacher cannot be too zealous in training it.

Teaching the time table:

• 60 seconds make a minute,
• 60 minutes make an hour,
• 24 hours make a day (and night),
• 7 days make a week,
• 4 weeks make a month,
• 12 months make a year,
• 100 years make a century.

Guessing time, as:—

Letting pupils guess the time, at any hour.

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Letting pupils close their eyes for a short period, and afterward guessing how long a time it was.

Letting pupils guess how long it took them to write or recite a certain lesson or to do a certain thing.

Recollection of time as:—

Having pupils recall the hour, day, week, month or season any event with which they are familiar occurred.

Having pupils recall the length of time that transpired between one event and another.

Memorizing time, as:—

Requiring them to remember the time or dates certain events are to take place.

Requiring them to remember appointments.

Measuring time, as:—

Letting pupils hold their breath while they clap their hands one time, two times, three times, etc., as far as they can.

Letting pupils give a certain sound while teacher holds up pencil a certain number of seconds.

Sun time:—

The sun rises in the east.

When the sun rises it is morning.

When the sun shines in at the east windows it is forenoon.

When the sun shines strait in at the south windows it is noon.

When the sun shines strait down on you, so that your shadow is right around your feet, it is noon.

When the sun shines in at the west windows it is afternoon.

The sun sets in the west.

When the sun sets it is evening.

Teach the abbreviations, A. M. and P. M.

How often, At times:—

How often does the sun rise in a day? in two days? in a week? etc. How often does it rain. How often do we go to school in a day? in a week? etc. How often does your birthday come? and like questions.

Ages of persons:—

Let pupils tell the dates of their birthdays, their parents’ birthdays, or dates of the birthdays of brothers, sisters or friends.

In some some way take special notice of, or celebrate, the birthdays of pupils when they occur during school months.

Celebrate in some way also the birthdays of the most noted men and women.

Speed:—

Stopping, beating or other movements, measured: slow, fast.

Practice exactness of time, punctuality, yourself; children learn more by example than by precept.

Require it always of your pupils. Teach them that “Procrastination is the thief of time.”

Teach the pupils to regard the clock as a true companion.

Songs:—

Time songs and clock songs. The time drill in music cannot be over done so long as the interest of the pupils is awakened.

Record of time:—

Require the noting of dates at the beginning of written exercises.

Train pupils to carry the day of[Pg 10] the month, and year, A. D.

Teach the abbreviation A. D. and its meaning.

Economy of time:—

Train pupils to economize time, by doing everything the best way and and the shortest.

Vigilance:—

Allow pupils to now and then watch the clock and rise when the hands indicate a certain hour.

Chronology:—

Let pupils write or give the order of events that occurred during a certain period of time with which they are familiar.

Order:—

Have certain days for doing certain things.

Have regular hours for regular recitations, exercises, etc.

Sunday, the day of devotion and rest, the Sabbath.

Monday, wash day, and first school day in the week.

Tuesday, ironing day.

Wednesday, baking day.

Thursday.

Friday, the last school day of the week.

Saturday, the last day of the week, and the day on which we prepare for Sunday.

Months.

Seasons.

Winter is the season of the year when the ground is white with snow.

Spring is the season when the snow melts off and the birds come.

Summer is the season when all plants grow.

Fall, or autumn is the season when the leaves turn, and fall.

Holidays.

Fixed and movable.

Newyear’s Day, January 1.

St. Valentine’s day, February 14.

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Easter Sunday.

Decoration Day, May 30.

Independence Day, July 4.

Thanksgiving Day,

Christmas Day, December 25, the birthday of Christ.

The legal holidays of the state in which you live.

Important days,—Arbor Day, etc.

Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added. Duplicate words at line endings were removed.

Noted: “strait” is used for “straight” several places.

Changes:

• “pastboard” to “pasteboard”
• “preceeding” to “preceding”
• “anwers” to “answers”
• “meaured” to “measured”
• “Vigilence” to “Vigilance”
• “Novomber” to “November”