It's About Time! (MathStart 1)

This book is better for second grade students and above for follow through activites. It was excellent as we counted together the school days activities in small increments for first grade.

This book by Stuart Murphy is part of his MathStart series. It covers time by relating the hours of the day to a little boy's activities: waking up, meals, going to school, playing, going home, story time, nap time, bath time, going to bed, etc. [If you are wondering about the early morning hours, they are spent frolicking with some friendly dream-monsters that dance and caper about.] The book focuses only on the `hour' but I think for a start that is perfect. After a child can read the hours reliably they can move on to the half-hour, quarter hours, etc. Each hour in this book is given a page which demonstrates not only how that hour is spent but both a digital and conventional (analog) representations of the time. The artwork is colorful and sweet and my only real complaint is that I wish they had separated the pictures of the analog clock from that of the digital clock because it makes it hard to `test' whether a child can read the traditional clock. (Digital seems so much easier for some reason.) As with all of Mr. Murphy's books there are suggestions for how to teach time at the end of the book as well as various practice/exercise ideas. In addition, in this book, the author has a recommended reading list of three other books about time: Clocks and More Clocks by Pat Hutchins; My First Book of Time by Claire Llewllyn; and Train Leaves the Station by Eve Merriam. You might also try a video called Rock N' Learn: Telling Time that has been useful in reinforcing the concept of reading clocks around our house. NOTE: As for the age recommendation, I think this book would also be good for a younger child. With my just turned 3 year old we discuss just how time passes and how we have certain activities that we do at the same time each day.