Minutes, Hours and Days: Converting Units of Time

Student Task

• Ask: "How many minutes long is a 2-hour movie?" and build a conversion table together.
• Model multiplying to convert and changing mixed units, then do the first questions of activity 1 together.
• Students complete activities 2 to 5; answers are in the answer key.

Classroom Use

• One-minute challenge: students guess when 60 seconds have passed with eyes closed, then compare with a timer.
• Class schedule: students convert the length of each school period into minutes and find the total school day.
• Time line-up: give cards with times in different units (2 hours, 100 minutes, 7,000 seconds) and order them from shortest to longest.

Differentiation

Support: focus on hours and minutes with a table and multiples of 60 listed. Challenge: convert between days, hours and minutes in two steps and work with seconds in long times.

Answer Key & Assessment

Activities 1 to 4 check conversions and comparisons (answer key included). Activity 5 checks problem solving.

Learning Objectives

• Know the relationships between seconds, minutes, hours, days and weeks.
• Convert larger units of time into smaller units, including mixed units.
• Compare lengths of time and solve word problems involving time.

Teacher Tips

Keep a conversion table on the board. Teach the rule: big unit to small unit, multiply (you need more of the small units); small unit to big unit, divide.

What's Included

• 6-page printable PDF lesson pack: teacher lesson plan with timings, materials and differentiation
• Key vocabulary list (4 words with meanings and examples)
• Student worksheet (5 activities)
• Editable Word version of the worksheet
• Complete answer key (also as a separate PDF)

Additional Files

• Editable Worksheet (DOCX)
• Answer Key (PDF)

Teacher Reviews