Learn to tell the time, one slice at a time 🍕

Guides

• A visual timer for time-blind kids: mornings, deadlines and routines for children who can't feel time passing

Why it matters

Children are meant to learn this in primary school. In England's national curriculum, Year 1 covers o'clock and half past, Year 2 covers quarter past, quarter to and five-minute times, Year 3 goes to the nearest minute, and Year 4 adds 24-hour clocks. (National curriculum: mathematics)

It slipped down the list. When schools were given guidance on what to prioritise in maths after the pandemic, telling the time wasn't included. (NCETM, Year 2 time)

Gaps can last into secondary school. In 2018, some schools swapped analogue clocks for digital ones in exam halls, and the head teachers' union said many students reach secondary school still unable to read a clock face. (Snopes: what actually happened)

Some children can't feel time passing. Research consistently finds that many children with ADHD find it harder to judge how long things take, which is why seeing time, rather than being told it, can help. (Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2017)

Pizza Clocks is a learning tool, not a treatment. If you're worried about your child's attention or development, talk to your GP or school.

How to teach a child to tell the time

Most children find “quarter to” confusing because nobody shows them why. So cut the clock like a pizza:

1. O'clock and half past first. Long hand at the top means o'clock; long hand at the bottom means half past.
2. Quarters next. A quarter of the pizza past the hour is quarter past. A quarter left to go is quarter to.
3. Then tens, twenties and fives. Count round in fives on the helper ring.
4. Finally, any minute and 24-hour time.

In the app, the right-hand side of the clock is always blue for “past” and the left-hand side is pink for “to”, so children can see which word to use.

Quarter past and quarter to, explained

Draw a line from 12 to 6. When the long hand is on the right of the line, we say past the hour: “ten past 3”, “quarter past 3”. On the left, we count how many minutes are left to the next hour: “twenty to 4”, “quarter to 4”. The short hand creeps towards the next number as the minutes go by, which is why at quarter to 4 it's nearly on the 4.

A visual timer for kids who lose track of time

Some children can't feel time passing, including many with ADHD. “Five more minutes” means nothing. Pizza Clocks shows time as a green slice that shrinks on a real clock, and it speaks gentle reminders: “Five minutes until we leave. Shoes and coat on!”

• Routines: the whole school morning as coloured slices: get dressed, breakfast, teeth, shoes. Set the time you need to leave and it works out the rest.
• Leave at a time: set 8:15 and the slice counts down to it.
• Just a clock: the real time in words, read aloud with one tap.

A 2-minute teeth-brushing timer

The pizza becomes two minutes, split into four 30-second slices: top right, bottom right, bottom left, top left. Each slice gets eaten as they brush, and a week chart shows morning and evening brushes. When it's done: “All clean! Spit, don't rinse.”

Put it on your home screen

iPhone and iPad: open pizzaclocks.com/app in Safari, tap Share (on newer iPhones it's inside the ••• menu), then Add to Home Screen. If you opened the link inside Facebook or another app, choose Open in Safari first.

Android: open it in Chrome and tap Add to Home screen or Install.

Progress is saved on your device, and it's safest when you always open Pizza Clocks from the home screen.

Keep the screen on for timers (iPhone): Settings › Accessibility › Guided Access, turn it on and set Display Auto-Lock to Never. Open Pizza Clocks, then triple-click the side button.

Free printables

• Make your own Pizza Clock: a card clock with past and to colours and cut-out hands (you'll need a split pin)
• Morning routine chart: draw and write each job, and when to leave
• Teeth and time chart: colour a sun, a moon and a star each day

Privacy

No accounts, no ads and nothing about your child leaves the device. Progress, stars, coins and routines are saved in your browser on that device only. Settings that a child shouldn't change are behind a grown-up PIN. Pages load fonts from Google, and we count anonymous visits to see how the app is used.