Turkey Tickle Time Activity & Freebie

Teaching elapsed time is a SC 4th grade standard and at times a not so easy one to teach. Here is an activity I implemented this past week in small groups to help my students with this skill. It's similar to my Pumpkin Poke freebie that you may or may not have downloaded.

First, I printed out these cards, laminated, and hole-punched underneath each answer (ok, I lie. A helpful parent did all of that :P.)

Then, I circled the hole on the back of the card that belonged to the right answer. The objective is for students to point the tip of a pencil or some kind of safe pointed tip (floral sticks, coffee stirrers) into the hole of the correct answer.

For the Turkey Tickle activity, the objective is to read the time and calculate how many more minutes are needed to reach the next hour. For example, if the time is 9:09, how many more minutes are needed until 10:00?

Students calculate the answer and "tickle the turkey" by inserting the tip into the correct hole of the answer.

In small groups, I explained this objective to my students and that in order to do this, they need to either calculate 9 + ? = 60 or 60 - ? = 0. I encouraged those who were struggling to use to use the counting up method: 9 + ? = 10 (answer - 1) and 10 + ? = 60 (answer - 50). Add the two answers together to achieve the final answer - 51.

Once students got the hang of it, they continued to grab cards, showing me the back of the card for me to check for accuracy and so forth. If students answered incorrectly, I was able to help them in the moment and also make mental notes of who seemed to be having difficulty with the concept. Once all the cards were taken, the students counted how many cards they had completed. This motivated them to not only make the calculations but to work as fast as possible to win more cards. Now I will place this game in math centers for extra practice.

This game, along with other elapsed time and telling time activities, are available at my TpT store (click here) and my Currclick store (click here).

If you'd like a sample freebie, click here to download a page of 12 elapsed time Turkey Tickle cards at TpT (click here) or Currclick (click here).

Happy November!