Support
Answer and teaching response
10 · Six equal groups of ten minutes fill one hour.
Build a timetable from fractional-hour task cards
Convert fractional-hour durations to minutes, place them in order and test whether a session finishes before its fixed deadline.
Get student and teacher materialsPrepare the group
Learning goal: Produce an ordered schedule with correct start/end times, explicit transition time and a check against a fixed session length.
You will need: Paper, pencil and a demonstration clock if available. Times use the same morning; all durations are invented classroom task cards.
Work through an example
A session starts at 9:10 a.m. and must finish at 10:00. It needs 1/4 hour of setup, 1/3 hour of practice and a 5-minute transition. How many minutes remain for reflection?
10 minutes. Setup takes 15 minutes, practice 20 minutes and transition 5 minutes: 40 of the available 50 minutes are used.
- Identify the fixed window: from 9:10 to 10:00 there are 50 minutes. Keep that available duration separate from the times printed on the clock.
- Convert each hour fraction using 60 minutes per hour. One quarter of an hour is 15 minutes and one third is 20 minutes; do not read them as decimal clock digits.
- Schedule in order: setup 9:10–9:25, practice 9:25–9:45, transition 9:45–9:50. Transitions use real session time and cannot be silently omitted.
- Use the remaining 10 minutes for reflection, ending at 10:00. Check that 15 + 20 + 5 + 10 = 50 minutes and that adjacent tasks have no unexplained overlap or gap.
Run the 15-minute workshop
- 3 minutes. Separate the session's clock endpoints from the task durations and identify time that is not yet assigned.
- 4 minutes. Build the worked table, including its transition, and check both elapsed minutes and the final clock reading.
- 5 minutes. Work through a support conversion and a core schedule before testing the challenge.
- 3 minutes. Complete the independent schedule and show that all tasks fit within the stated window.
A useful error to discuss
A learner might say: One third of an hour is 30 minutes, because the fraction contains a 3.
Partition the 60-minute hour into three equal groups. Each is 20 minutes. Thirty minutes is one of two equal half-hour groups.
Practise at your level, then check independently
Start with support or core practice, then try the challenge. Complete the independent check without help. Enter a number, fraction or mixed number, such as 3/4 or 1 1/4. The number check does not assess your drawing or explanation.
Core
Answer and teaching response
10 · Fifteen plus twenty uses thirty-five of the forty-five minutes.
Challenge
Answer and teaching response
5 · The finish is 11:05 a.m.; twenty-five minutes reach 11:00 and five more complete the thirty-minute task.
Independent check
Answer and teaching response
10 · The window is 50 minutes; 20 + 15 + 5 uses 40, leaving 10. One schedule is 2:20–2:40, 2:40–2:55, 2:55–3:00, then reflection to 3:10.
Transfer the idea
If the worked practice overruns by 7 minutes but setup and transition stay unchanged, can the original 10-minute reflection still finish by 10:00? Explain the available choices.
Discuss a possible response
No. With a fixed finish, reflection has only 3 minutes left. Keeping all 10 reflection minutes would move the finish to 10:07 unless another task is shortened. State which constraint changes rather than hiding the overrun.
Choose the next teaching step
- Converts hour fractions using a 60-minute reference whole.
- Accounts for transitions and verifies the schedule against its deadline.
Support: Write 60 minutes above a strip and partition it into equal halves, thirds or quarters before placing tasks on a clock.
Extend: Reorder the three fixed tasks without changing their durations. Show why the remaining reflection duration stays 10 minutes even though intermediate times change.
Materials for your group
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