How Long IS a Minute?

In first grade, we're starting our math unit on time. I love teaching time because they can apply their new knowledge all day long at school!

Today our lesson was about understanding the minute.

The first thing I had them do was close their eyes and raise their hand when they thought a minute had passed. When I first explained this to them, I said, "So today we are going to learn how long a minute is." And one girl said, "A minute is 60 seconds." Wellllllll okay then, thanks for ruining the activity! Haha! We still did the closing eyes thing. One girl raised her hand after 10 seconds! A couple people raised their hands after about 30, and everyone else counted to 60! Cheaters!

Then we did a little "minute to win it" type of thing. I typed up a little sheet where they estimated how many times they could do a jumping jack, clap their hands, hop on one foot, and count to 10. Then we tested our estimations. We were WAY off! However, we found out that one energetic child can hop 80 times in 30 seconds. I just let him off the hook after 30 seconds and taught them two-digit addition so my first grader wouldn't pass out. :)

Here's the sheet I typed up! If you can use it, let me know!

On the back, we estimated and then wrote as many numbers as we could in a minute. Most of the first graders thought they could write all the numbers from 1-100, however, they were sad when they only got to 20 or 30!

This was way more fun than what my book wanted us to do today. :)