CLOCKS AND TIME

by Karen Caroe



INTRODUCTION

Funschooling Units are a free, printable unit study designed for homeschooling families. They are written for maximum flexibility in a user-friendly format. No prior experience with Unit Studies is required. Simply select the activities/studies you wish to do with your children and arrange them into your daily schedule. 

Here is a Unit Study Planner (http://homepages.tesco.net/~littlebears/unit.htm) that you may print to help you schedule your studies.

BIBLE

1. Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. Discuss this verse. What is Solomon saying about life?
2. Early elementary--point out that each verse is a set of opposites. Talk about what they mean. Encourage child to come up with other opposites
3.The King James Version of the Holy Bible uses the word "time" 563 times. Do a word search.
4. Older elementary and up--Do a topical Bible Study of time and continue it throughout the course of the unit. Ideas: Beginning of Time, Epochs of Time, Daniel's reckoning of time.
5. Older students look for verses that may relate to time but don't actually use the word. Example: "Teach us to Number our days......"
6. Have older students write and lead a family devotional on a verse they find.
7. Look up places where God altered time. What are the ramifications/significance of the Sun stopping and or going backward?

LANGUAGE ARTS

1. Younger students--teach idioms, expressions, and wise sayings. Use some of these:
"Time is Money"
"A stitch in time saves nine."
"Time will tell."
"No time like the present."
2. Have students illustrate some of the above sayings.
3. Have older students write a "fable" with one of these as the moral. (Take the opportunity to teach what a "fable" is if you haven't already done so.)
4. Really young children. Teach the Nursery Rhymes: "Hickory Dickory Dock", and "A Dillar a Dollar"
5. Look around your house and select some children's stories where time was an important element. Example: White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.
6. Grammar studies: Teach or Review Past, Present and Future tenses of verbs.
7. Catagorizing: Put the following words (and you can think of others) into the past, present, and future catagories: Now, then, later, yesterday, today, tomorrow, last week, soon, ancestor, prelude, postlude, before, during, after, currently, eventually..........
8. Select appropriate vocabulary/spelling words for your students grade level to work on throughout the unit. Examples: All the words from the above list, procrastinate, punctual, calibration, pendulum, chimes, digital, quartz...........
9. Make a notebook with photos/drawings of different kinds of clocks. Have a short description of each. Hourglass, digital, sundial, quartz, cuckoo, grandfather, Clockenspiel, watch, regulator, analog.
10. Older students should write a report relating to a specific area of interest they may have during this unit. Grammar credit can be given by showing that the student has edited the rough draft and attaching it to the final copy.

MATH
NOTE!!! I learned some fascinating new math ideas while researching this unit. To try them out, you will need to use the Internet Links page or go to a local educational bookstore and look for books on Modular Math, Clock Math, or Circular Math.

1.Play "beat the clock" game with Math facts. This is a great review and lots of fun. If you already do speed drills, liven things up by turning this into a game show and giving prizes.
2 Early elementary--teach hour, 1/2 hour and 1/4 hour.
3. Use a clock to teach fractions.
4. Early Elementary. Teach Roman and Arabic Numerals. Look for them on watches and clocks. Antique clocks especially use Roman numerals.
5. Teach child to read a clock face: analog and digital.
6. For early elementary, don't forget calendar reading skills.
7. This is a good time to get your high schooler interested in using a daytimer or personal scheduler. Discuss why this is important.
8. Look at World or Olympic Records for running or swimming. Compare/contrast how "split" seconds can change a record. Compare the fastest Sprint to some other activity your child can do.

HISTORY

1.**Study one or more of the following based on your students level: Ancient Calendars, Early clocks, Atomic clocks.
2 Study Antique clocks. Learn their names and how they work.
3. Field trip: Go to a clock maker, clock repairman, or antique shop specializing in clocks. Have older children prepared to ask questions and report on what they learn.
4 Study some famous clocks: Big Ben, The Glockenspiels.
5. Learn how to use a sundial.
6. Make a timeline for your homeschool if you've never done one.

SCIENCE

1Older students. Learn the Equation for Time. This may take some research but is well worth it.
2.Locate the Big Dipper. Research how to tell time by the Big Dipper.
3. Study the earth's rotation around the Sun. How can we approximate what time it is by looking for the sun and/or measuring shadows.
4. Younger students. Learn about seasons.
5 Build a lego clock. Or try to figure out how to build a clock based on understanding the physics of how a pendulum works.

GEOGRAPHY

1. Locate the Prime Meridian
2. Learn about Time Zones across the world and how to figure them.
3. Draw a big clock and put your current time to the hour. Now, place "characters" representing missionaries from other places on the clock. Make the characters 2 sided--white and black to represent daytime and nighttime.
4. Question for thought (younger). Can someone still be in today while you are already in tomorrow?
5. Study places with extreme time differences--ie Northern Alaska--24 hour days and then 24 hour nights. How would that affect you physically, emotionally?

ART AND MUSIC

1. Let your child design a 1999 calendar selecting a different picture for each month. If you don't have a graphics program, try to get a freebie calendar and glue your child's art over the pictures that are already there.
2. Sing some "time" songs. Examples: My Grandfather's Clock, In the Good Ol' Summertime, "Shine on Harvest Moon"

EXPANSION TOPICS
As you study clocks and time, you'll probably have lots of ideas not listed here. It is really a big unit and worth revisiting in a few years. (Never be afraid to repeat a unit study a couple of years down the road.) These are "rabbit trail" topics--ideas on which you can expand to create new units or other activities with this unit.

1 Leap Year and Leap Days.
2. Y2K. The year 2000 computer clock problem. Why is it such a big deal?
3. Your family tree. Genealogy.

CONCLUSION
I hope you enjoy this unit. It has been a lot of fun writing for you. I'm sure you'll find the magnitude of this topic lends itself to many, many ideas. Hopefully, that will encourage you to continue teaching with units and realize you can think up some pretty good activities on your own. :o)

For questions, comments, and suggestions, Please e-mail Heather at belovedbks@aol.com.