Past or To?

Teaching past and to together

Prerequisites: minutes past and minutes to as separate skills, and counting in fives.

Suggested sequence (15–20 min)

1. Sort: Show times on the clock and ask children to hold up a card for “past” or “to”. Use the first two projector levels.
2. Pairs: Show ten past and ten to, twenty past and twenty to. Discuss the mirror pattern (the minutes add up to 60).
3. Mix: Use the “Past or to?” level and ask for the digital time as well as the words.
4. Challenge: Switch the colours off with Show hints and use the “Everything” level.

Common misconceptions

• Using the wrong hour for “to”. At twenty to five, the short hand is heading to 5, so the hour we say is 5.
• Counting forward for “to”. Children count 5, 10, 15 from 12 and say “fifteen to”. Teach counting back from 12, or use 60 − minutes.
• Mixing up the sides. Use a consistent gesture: right hand for past, left hand for to.

Questions to ask

• “Is the blue hand on the past or to side? How do you know?”
• “What is the other way to say 4:40?” (Forty past four / twenty to five)

Curriculum links

UK Year 2–3: tell and write the time from an analogue clock, including quarter past/to. US CCSS 2.MD.7: tell and write time to the nearest five minutes.

What your child is learning

Your child is practicing when to say past and when to say to, and which hour goes with each. This is mixed practice that pulls together everything from the last few lessons.

Why it can feel tricky

• “To” times use the next hour, which feels backwards at first.
• Counting the minutes back from 12 is harder than counting forward.

Easy ways to help at home

• Ask “past or to?” whenever you glance at a clock together.
• Say both: “It’s 4:40, so twenty to five.”
• Play a quick game: you call a time, they show it with their arms (or hands on a toy clock).
• Keep it short and playful. 2 or 3 minutes at a time is plenty.

Try this: “It’s ten to six. Is that past or to? Which hour will it be soon?”