Every day has a morning, a noon and a night. Things in our day happen in order.
Morning at Grande Riviere, Trinidad. The sun is coming up. Photo: Jordan Beard, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Morning, noon and night
🌅 Morning: the sun comes up. We wake up and eat breakfast.
☀️ Noon: the middle of the day. We eat lunch.
🌙 Night: it is dark. We see the moon. We sleep.
Lunch time comes around noon, in the middle of the day. Photo: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
First, next, last
Things in my day happen in order:
⏰ wake up
🪥 brush teeth
🥣 breakfast
🏫 school
🍛 lunch
🛁 bath
🛏️ bed
I brush my teeth before school. I eat lunch after school starts.
A long time or a short time?
Some things take a short time: a clap, a blink, putting on a sock.
Some things take a long time: sleeping all night, a school day, a long car ride.
Try it: clap once. Now count how many claps you can do while an adult sings a song.
Night time. The moon is out, and it is time to sleep. Photo: CAPTAIN RAJU, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Try it
TRY ITMy day
Pick a game. Then tap your answer.
Let’s practise
Point, say or draw. Open each answer after trying.
1. What do you do first in the morning?
Show answer
Answers will vary, for example: I wake up.
2. Do we eat lunch in the morning, at noon or at night?
Show answer
At noon, in the middle of the day.
3. Put in order: go to bed, bath, dinner.
Show answer
Dinner, bath, go to bed.
4. Which takes a long time? (a) a blink (b) a night of sleep (c) a clap
Show answer
(b) a night of sleep.
Quick check
Try these three on your own first. An adult may read the words.
1. When do we see the moon?
Morning
Noon
Night
Show answer
Night. We see the moon at night.
2. What comes after breakfast on a school day?
Going to school
Going to bed
Waking up
Show answer
Going to school. Breakfast, then school.
3. Which takes a short time?
A school day
Clapping once
Sleeping all night
Show answer
Clapping once. One clap is very quick.
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Maths lesson 15: Morning, Noon and Night — worksheet
Point, draw or tell an adult. An adult can write for you.
Draw three pictures of your day: morning, noon and night.
Draw what you do before school and what you do after school.
Draw one thing that takes a long time and one thing that takes a short time.
Say these words with an adult. Can you use each one in a sentence?
morning · noon · night · before · after · first · next · last · long time · short time
Try it at home
Make a picture timetable of your day and put it on the fridge.
At bedtime, tell the day in order: first, next, then, last.
Guess and check: is brushing your teeth a long time or a short time? Sing a song while you do it.
For parents and teachers
After this lesson, your child should be able to:
put three or four daily events in the right order
say whether an activity happens in the morning, at noon or at night
compare two activities and say which takes a longer or a shorter time
Use your own family routine. Telling the time on a clock and days of the week are taught later, so focus on order and comparing durations.
Accept pointing, speaking, signing or communication aids. An adult can scribe. Observe the hands-on work as well as the Quick check; the badge records supported completion only.
Measuring is everywhere: a tailor measuring cloth for a school uniform, a vendor weighing tomatoes at the market, a nurse taking your temperature, or a teacher timing the 100 m on Sports Day. In Form 1 you learned the units of measurement and about mass and weight. In Lesson 4 you rounded and estimated. In this lesson you will choose the right instrument and unit for a job, read scales carefully, and say how accurate a measurement is.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this lesson you should be able to:
2.5.1.1 – Choose a suitable measuring instrument for a quantity.
2.5.1.2 – Choose the most suitable unit for measuring a quantity.
2.5.1.3 – Read and make sense of scales on measuring instruments.
2.5.1.4 – Measure quantities to a stated degree of accuracy, including time on the 24-hour clock.
Choosing a measuring instrument
Different jobs need different tools. For length alone there are several instruments, depending on how long the object is and how accurate you need to be.
Instrument
Measures, for example
Ruler or metre rule
Short lengths: a pencil, a page
Tape measure
Longer lengths: a room, your waist
Trundle wheel
Long distances: the school field
Vernier caliper
Small lengths: the width of a pipe
Micrometer screw gauge
Very small lengths: the thickness of a wire
Scale or balance
Mass: flour, a bag of rice, you
Measuring cylinder or jug
Capacity: medicine, water for cooking
Thermometer
Temperature: body or air temperature
Clock or stopwatch
Time: a race, a class period
Protractor
Angle: an angle in a triangle
A trundle wheel clicks once for every metre it rolls, so you count the clicks. A vernier caliper and a micrometer screw gauge are used in the science lab for lengths much smaller than a ruler can measure well.
Choosing the best unit
Choose a unit that gives a sensible number, not a huge one or a tiny decimal. You would give the length of your exercise book in centimetres, not kilometres!
Quantity
Units (small to large)
Example
Length
mm, cm, m, km
Coin thickness: mm. Door height: m.
Mass
mg, g, kg, tonne
A mango: g. A bag of rice: kg.
Capacity
ml, l
A spoon of medicine: ml. A bucket: l.
Temperature
°C
A hot day: about 32 °C.
Time
s, min, h
A sprint: s. A football match: min.
Reading a scale
Most scales have only some marks labelled. To read a scale:
Find two labelled marks next to each other, for example 30 and 40.
Count the spaces (not the lines) between them, for example 5.
Work out the value of one division: difference ÷ number of spaces. Here (40 − 30) ÷ 5 = 2.
Count the divisions from the labelled mark just below the reading, and add.
Figure 1 – Each small division on this ruler is 1 mm (0.1 cm). The bar starts at 2.0 cm and ends at 9.4 cm, so its length is 9.4 − 2.0 = 7.4 cm.
When you measure with a ruler, line the start of the object up with the 0 mark if you can. If you start at another mark, as in Figure 1, subtract: end reading − start reading.
Figure 2 – On this measuring cylinder there are 5 spaces between 30 ml and 40 ml, so each division is 2 ml. Read the bottom of the curved surface (the meniscus) with your eye level with it: 34 ml.
Water in a narrow tube curves at the top. This curve is the meniscus. Read the bottom of the curve, with your eye level with the surface. If you look from above or below, the reading will be wrong. This error is called parallax.
Figure 3 – This thermometer has 5 spaces between 30 °C and 40 °C, so each division is 2 °C. The liquid is 1 division above 30, so the temperature is 32 °C.
Degree of accuracy
No measurement is exact. The smallest division on the scale limits how accurate you can be. A ruler marked in millimetres measures to the nearest millimetre (0.1 cm). A kitchen scale marked every 20 g measures to the nearest 20 g, or perhaps the nearest 10 g if you judge halfway.
When a measurement is rounded, the true value can be up to half a unit either side. The bar in Figure 1 is 7.4 cm to the nearest 0.1 cm, so its true length is from 7.35 cm up to (but not including) 7.45 cm. This is the same idea as rounding in Lesson 4.
Value
Accurate to
True value lies
15 cm
nearest cm
14.5 cm to 15.5 cm
7.4 cm
nearest 0.1 cm
7.35 cm to 7.45 cm
250 g
nearest 10 g
245 g to 255 g
3 h
nearest hour
2.5 h to 3.5 h
Time and the 24-hour clock
Bus and ferry timetables, airline tickets and phones often use the 24-hour clock. It always uses four digits, and there is no a.m. or p.m.
For a.m. times, write the time with four digits: 7:05 a.m. is 07:05. Midnight is 00:00.
For p.m. times from 1:00 p.m. on, add 12 to the hours: 2:45 p.m. is 14:45. Noon is 12:00.
To find how long something takes, count on to the next hour, then on to the end time.
Worked examples
Example 1: Instrument and unit
Question: Choose an instrument and a unit for measuring (a) the thickness of a $1 coin (b) the length of the school corridor (c) the mass of a bag of rice.
A coin is very thin, so use a small, accurate instrument and a small unit.
A corridor is long, so use something that measures long lengths.
A bag of rice is heavy compared with a mango, so use kilograms.
Answer: (a) vernier caliper, mm (b) tape measure or trundle wheel, m (c) scale, kg
Example 2: Reading a kitchen scale
Question: A kitchen scale is labelled 0, 100, 200, 300 g with 5 spaces between labels. The pointer is 3 divisions past 200. What is the mass?
Value of one division: 100 ÷ 5 = 20 g.
Reading: 200 + 3 × 20 = 260 g.
Answer: 260 g.
Example 3: Reading a measuring cylinder
Question: Use Figure 2. What volume of water is in the cylinder?
There are 5 spaces between 30 ml and 40 ml, so each division is (40 − 30) ÷ 5 = 2 ml.
The bottom of the meniscus is 2 divisions above 30.
30 + 2 × 2 = 34.
Answer: 34 ml.
Example 4: Limits of accuracy
Question: A piece of ribbon is 12.6 cm long, measured to the nearest millimetre. Between which values does its true length lie?
The nearest millimetre is the nearest 0.1 cm. Half of 0.1 cm is 0.05 cm.
12.6 − 0.05 = 12.55 and 12.6 + 0.05 = 12.65.
Answer: from 12.55 cm up to 12.65 cm.
Example 5: A maxi-taxi journey
Question: A maxi-taxi leaves at 2:50 p.m. and arrives at 4:15 p.m. (a) Write both times in the 24-hour clock. (b) How long is the journey?
2:50 p.m. is 14:50 and 4:15 p.m. is 16:15.
From 14:50 to 15:00 is 10 minutes. From 15:00 to 16:15 is 1 hour 15 minutes.
Counting lines instead of spaces. Between 30 and 40 with 4 small lines in between there are 5 spaces, so each is worth 2, not 2.5.
Starting the ruler at its edge. Many rulers have a gap before 0. Start at the 0 mark, or subtract the start reading.
Reading the meniscus from above. Keep your eye level with the bottom of the curve.
Using a silly unit. The mass of a pencil in kilograms gives a tiny decimal; use grams.
24-hour clock slips. 15:00 is 3:00 p.m., not 5:00 p.m. Subtract 12 from the hours after noon.
Practice questions
Try these yourself first, then open each answer to check your working.
1. Which instrument is best for measuring the diameter of a thin copper wire? A. A metre rule B. A tape measure C. A micrometer screw gauge D. A trundle wheel
Show answer
C. A micrometer screw gauge measures very small lengths, to about 0.01 mm.
2. Choose the best unit for each. (a) The mass of an egg (b) The length of a cricket pitch (c) The capacity of a teaspoon (d) The distance from Port of Spain to Arima
3. A scale is labelled 0, 10, 20, … with 5 equal spaces between each pair of labels. The pointer is 3 small divisions past 10. What is the reading?
Show answer
Each division is 10 ÷ 5 = 2. The reading is 10 + 3 × 2 = 16.
4. A measuring jug is labelled every 100 ml, with 4 spaces between labels. The juice is 2 divisions above the 300 ml mark. How much juice is in the jug?
Show answer
Each division is 100 ÷ 4 = 25 ml. The amount is 300 + 2 × 25 = 350 ml.
5. A leaf is placed on a ruler. One end is at 3.0 cm and the other end is at 11.7 cm. How long is the leaf, in cm and in mm?
Show answer
11.7 − 3.0 = 8.7 cm, which is 87 mm.
6. A bag of flour has a mass of 25 kg, correct to the nearest kilogram. Between which two values does its true mass lie?
Show answer
Between 24.5 kg and 25.5 kg (half of 1 kg either side).
7. On the thermometer in Figure 3, the liquid drops to 3 divisions above the 20 °C mark. What is the temperature now?
Show answer
Each division is 2 °C, so the temperature is 20 + 3 × 2 = 26 °C.
8. Write each time in the 24-hour clock. (a) 7:05 a.m. (b) 9:40 p.m. (c) Write 00:15 in the 12-hour clock.
Show answer
(a) 07:05 (b) 21:40 (c) 12:15 a.m. (a quarter past midnight)
9. On Sports Day, Kemba ran 100 m in 12.4 seconds, timed to the nearest tenth of a second. What are the shortest and longest times she could really have taken?
Show answer
From 12.35 s up to 12.45 s. The time is within half of 0.1 s, which is 0.05 s, of 12.4 s.
Quick check
1. On a ruler marked in millimetres, what is each small division worth in centimetres?
Show answer
0.1 cm (1 mm).
2. Where do you read the level of water in a measuring cylinder?
Show answer
At the bottom of the curved surface (the meniscus), with your eye level with it.
Curriculum link: This post is relevant to the Trinidad and Tobago National Lower Secondary (NCSE) Mathematics Curriculum – Form 2, Term 2, Strand 2.5 Measurement, Topic 2.5.1 Units of Measurement and Conversion of Units – Learning Outcomes 2.5.1.1 (choosing measuring instruments), 2.5.1.2 (choosing suitable units), 2.5.1.3 (reading and interpreting scales) and 2.5.1.4 (measuring to a given degree of accuracy).
What do you do in the morning? What do you do at night? Today we learn about time: the order of our day, the calendar, and how long things take.
My day
In the morning I wake up and eat breakfast.
Then I go to school.
At lunchtime I eat lunch.
In the afternoon I come home.
At night I eat dinner and go to bed at bedtime.
Days of the week
There are 7 days in a week: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
We go to school from Monday to Friday. That is 5 school days. Saturday and Sunday are the weekend.
Months of the year
There are 12 months in a year: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
Most months have 30 or 31 days. February has 28 days, or 29 in a leap year. Trinidad and Tobago has two seasons: the dry season and the rainy season.
Your birthdate is the date you were born. On a calendar, find your birthday!
Yesterday, today and tomorrow
If today is Tuesday, then yesterday was Monday and tomorrow will be Wednesday.
How long does it take?
An hourglass measures time. The sand takes the same time to run through every time. Photo: John Morgan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
We can measure time with claps, or by counting slowly. If tying your shoes takes 20 claps and washing your hands takes 10 claps, tying your shoes takes a longer time.
TRY ITTime detective
Choose a game. Then tap your answer.
Clap counter
A grown-up taps Clap (or claps) while you do a job. More claps means it took longer.
0
Let’s practise
Try each one. Then tap Show answer to check.
1. What day comes after Thursday?
Show answer
Friday.
2. What month comes after June?
Show answer
July.
3. Is Saturday a school day?
Show answer
No. It is the weekend.
4. Which happens first: lunch or breakfast?
Show answer
Breakfast.
5. How many days are in a week?
Show answer
7.
6. If today is Friday, what was yesterday?
Show answer
Thursday.
7. Which takes longer: blinking or eating dinner?
Show answer
Eating dinner.
Quick check
1. How many months are in a year?
Show answer
12.
2. Name the two days of the weekend.
Show answer
Saturday and Sunday.
3. Which month has only 28 or 29 days?
Show answer
February.
Maths words
Say these words with a grown-up. Can you use each one in a sentence?
morning · night · lunchtime · bedtime · before · after · yesterday · today · tomorrow · soon · now · then · past · present · future · a long time · a short time · day · week · weekend · month · year · calendar · date · birthdate · season
Try it at home
Draw four pictures of your morning. Mix them up and put them back in order.
Find your birthday on a calendar. What day of the week is it this year?
Each morning, say: “Today is … Yesterday was … Tomorrow will be …”
Count claps while a grown-up writes their name. Then you write yours. Who took longer?
For parents and teachers
After this lesson, your child should be able to:
put the events of a day in order and use words like morning, lunchtime, night, before and after
name the days of the week and the months of the year in order
read a calendar to find dates, school days and weekends
measure how long something takes with claps and record it
compare which activities take a longer or shorter time
Hang a calendar at child height and mark birthdays and holidays together.
Time organises everything we do: school starts at 8:00, a flight leaves at 22:50, a match lasts 90 minutes and a year has 365 days. In this lesson you will learn the units of time and how they are linked, read and write times on the 12-hour and 24-hour clocks, convert between units, and work out how long events last – including events that pass midnight.
Units of time
Unit
Equals
1 minute (min)
60 seconds (s)
1 hour (h)
60 minutes = 3,600 seconds
1 day
24 hours
1 week
7 days
1 year
365 days (366 in a leap year), 52 weeks and 1 day, or 12 months
1 decade / century
10 years / 100 years
A leap year has 29 February. Years divisible by 4 are leap years, except century years, which must be divisible by 400 (2000 was a leap year; 2100 will not be).
Time is not decimal: there are 60 minutes in an hour, not 100. So 2.5 hours is 2 hours 30 minutes (not 2 hours 50 minutes). Durations can be written in parts (3 h 30 min), as a fraction (312 h) or as a decimal (3.5 h).
We measure time with clocks and watches (analogue, with hands, or digital), stopwatches for short events like races, timers, and calendars for days, weeks and months.
Figure 1 – A mechanical stopwatch. The large hand counts seconds and the small dial counts minutes. Image: R. Henrik Nilsson, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The 12-hour and 24-hour clocks
The 12-hour clock counts from 12 to 12 twice a day, using a.m. (midnight to noon) and p.m. (noon to midnight).
The 24-hour clock counts the hours from 00 to 23 and always uses four digits: 07:30, 19:45. It is used for timetables, flights and the military because it can never be confused.
To change p.m. to 24-hour time, add 12 to the hours (7:45 p.m. → 19:45). For a.m. keep the hours, with a leading zero (9:05 a.m. → 09:05). Midnight is 00:00 and noon is 12:00.
To change 24-hour time to p.m., subtract 12 from hours of 13 or more (14:35 → 2:35 p.m.).
Figure 2 – A 24-hour clock painted by Paolo Uccello in 1443 in Florence Cathedral, Italy. Its hand goes round once a day. Image: Clock face by Paolo Uccello (1443); photograph released under CC0, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Working out durations
The easiest method is to count on: from the start time, go up to the next whole hour, then count whole hours, then the minutes left. For example, 08:45 to 14:20 is 15 min (to 09:00) + 5 h (to 14:00) + 20 min = 5 h 35 min.
TRY ITTime duration calculator
Type a start time and an end time on the 24-hour clock. The calculator converts them to the 12-hour clock and counts on to find how long the event lasts – even past midnight.
Worked examples
Example 1: Converting clock times
Question: Write (a) 14:35 and 09:05 in 12-hour time (b) 7:45 p.m. in 24-hour time.
(a) 14 − 12 = 2, so 14:35 is 2:35 p.m.; 09:05 is before noon, so 9:05 a.m.
(b) 7 + 12 = 19, so 19:45.
Answer: (a) 2:35 p.m. and 9:05 a.m. (b) 19:45.
Example 2: Converting units
Question: Change (a) 212 hours to minutes (b) 200 minutes to hours and minutes (c) 3.25 hours to minutes.
(a) 2 h = 120 min and 12 h = 30 min: 150 min.
(b) 200 ÷ 60 = 3 remainder 20: 3 h 20 min.
(c) 3.25 × 60 = 195 min (0.25 h is a quarter of an hour, 15 min).
Answer: 150 min; 3 h 20 min; 195 min.
Example 3: A duration
Question: A school day runs from 08:45 to 14:20. How long is it?
08:45 → 09:00 is 15 min.
09:00 → 14:00 is 5 h.
14:00 → 14:20 is 20 min.
Total: 5 h 35 min = 5 × 60 + 35 = 335 min.
Answer: 5 h 35 min.
Example 4: Past midnight
Question: A flight leaves at 22:50 and lands at 06:15 the next morning (same time zone). How long is the flight?
22:50 → 24:00 (midnight) is 1 h 10 min.
00:00 → 06:15 is 6 h 15 min.
Add: 7 h 25 min.
Answer: 7 h 25 min.
Example 5: Finding an end time
Question: A football match kicks off at 19:45. Each half lasts 45 minutes, half-time is 15 minutes and there are 5 minutes of added time. When does it end?
Total time: 45 + 15 + 45 + 5 = 110 min = 1 h 50 min.
19:45 + 1 h = 20:45; 20:45 + 50 min = 21:35.
Answer: 21:35 (9:35 p.m.).
Common mistakes
Treating time as decimal. 1.5 h is 1 h 30 min, and 2 h 45 min is not 2.45 h.
Subtracting clock times like ordinary numbers. 14:20 − 08:45 is not 5:75 or 5.75 h; count on instead.
Adding 12 to a.m. times, or forgetting that 12:30 a.m. is 00:30.
Forgetting the day changes when an event passes midnight.
Practice questions
Try these yourself first, then open each answer to check your working.
1. Write 16:10 and 00:25 in 12-hour time, and 8:40 p.m. in 24-hour time.
Show answer
4:10 p.m.; 12:25 a.m.; 20:40.
2. Change (a) 134 h to minutes (b) 250 min to hours and minutes (c) 3 hours to seconds.
Show answer
(a) 105 min (b) 4 h 10 min (c) 10,800 s.
3. A lesson runs from 09:40 to 11:05. How long is it?
Show answer
20 min + 1 h + 5 min = 1 h 25 min (85 min).
4. A bus leaves at 13:25 and the journey takes 2 h 50 min. When does it arrive?
Show answer
16:15.
5. A night shift runs from 23:15 to 04:40. How long is it?
Show answer
45 min + 4 h 40 min = 5 h 25 min.
6. A school has six 40-minute lessons, two 5-minute changeovers and a 30-minute break. If it starts at 08:00, when does it end?
Show answer
240 + 10 + 30 = 280 min = 4 h 40 min, and 08:00 + 4 h 40 min = 12:40.
7. How many hours are in a (non-leap) year?
Show answer
365 × 24 = 8,760 hours.
8. Which of these are leap years: 2024, 2025, 2028, 2100, 2000?
Curriculum link: This post is relevant to the Trinidad and Tobago National Lower Secondary (NCSE) Mathematics Curriculum – Form 1, Term 2, Strand 1.5 Measurement, Topic 1.5.6 Time – Learning Outcomes 1.5.6.1 (measuring how long events last, in suitable units), 1.5.6.2 (converting between seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and years) and 1.5.6.3 (solving problems involving time).
