--- title: "Estimating and reading time" description: "Estimate and read time with increasing accuracy to the nearest minute; record and compare time in terms of seconds, minutes, and hours" canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/mathematics/estimating-and-reading-time-mt_3XJkeIn6J6 source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/mathematics/estimating-and-reading-time-mt_3XJkeIn6J6.md retrieved: 2026-09-02 --- > **Agent view.** This is the Markdown twin of the page, for tools and assistants. > When to use this site, and the call that answers each job: https://lightmysky.com/agent-instructions.md > API description (OpenAPI 3.1): https://lightmysky.com/openapi.json · Authentication: https://lightmysky.com/auth.md > Pricing: https://lightmysky.com/pricing.md · Catalog: https://lightmysky.com/llms.txt · Full catalog: https://lightmysky.com/llms-full.txt > Every machine-readable file on this domain: https://lightmysky.com/.well-known/ai-catalog.json > Ask for Markdown with `Accept: text/markdown`, a `.md` address, or `?mode=agent`. # Estimating and reading time Estimate and read time with increasing accuracy to the nearest minute; record and compare time in terms of seconds, minutes, and hours Subject: Mathematics · Area: Measurement · Ages 7 to 8 Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/mathematics/estimating-and-reading-time-mt_3XJkeIn6J6 ## Ready when they can - Read an analogue clock to the nearest minute - Estimate how long an activity takes in minutes or seconds - Compare two durations and determine which is longer ## Lesson: Finding out how long things take A clock has two hands. The short hand tells you the hour. It is the number the short hand has just gone past. The long hand counts the minutes. Start at the 12 and count on in fives, then in ones, until you reach the long hand. Counting the small marks one at a time gets you to the nearest minute. *(drawing: The short hand is just past the 3, so the hour is 3. The long hand is 23 small marks past the 12, so the clock reads 3:23.)* Sometimes you do not need a clock. You can estimate, which means saying a sensible amount of time without measuring. A blink takes less than one second. Brushing your teeth takes about 2 minutes. Watching a whole film takes hours. Choose seconds, minutes, or hours first, then pick the number. **Example.** Ben estimates how long it takes to read one short page. It is longer than a blink, but much shorter than his 10 minute walk to school. About 1 minute is a sensible guess. **Example.** Mia's piano practice starts at 4:10 and ends at 4:35. The time from the start to the end is called a duration. Count on from 10 to 35 on the clock face. That is 25 minutes. To compare two durations, work out the minutes for each one. The one with the bigger number of minutes lasted longer. If the two numbers match, they lasted the same time. Count both the same way, in minutes, so the comparison is fair. **Recap.** To find a duration, read the clock, count the minutes between start and end, and compare which one took longer. ## Practice 8 questions on this page, each with its working shown. ## Needs first - [Telling time to the minute (age 7+)](https://lightmysky.com/learn/mathematics/telling-time-to-the-minute-age-7-mt_4m8BimI4G5) - [Sequence intervals of time](https://lightmysky.com/learn/mathematics/sequence-intervals-of-time-mt_6XCURuNwPw) ## Opens up - [Comparing Time Durations](https://lightmysky.com/learn/mathematics/comparing-time-durations-mt_4emC463IyW)