The idea in brief. A minute is 60 seconds and an hour is 60 minutes; compare or calculate durations in a common unit. A minute has 60 seconds. Regroup at 60 when adding seconds or minutes. In the lesson. You know that sixty minutes make one hour. Today, we will change between seconds and minutes. A stopwatch shows 167 s for a walk round the estate. How many minutes and seconds is that? Sixty seconds make one minute.
Lesson video, with the working
Seconds, minutes and hours
5 min 50 s
The film teaches 2 questions in turn. Each question shows first; its working is written as the film explains it.
How do you work through converting minutes and seconds questions in P3?
This page teaches measuring time in seconds and changing between seconds, minutes and hours.
What your child learns here
This page teaches measuring time in seconds and changing between seconds, minutes and hours. It follows the P3 outcome on measuring time in seconds and uses two facts: 60 seconds make 1 minute, and 60 minutes make 1 hour.
Know that 1 minute = 60 seconds and 1 hour = 60 minutes.
Change minutes and seconds to seconds by multiplying the minutes by 60 and adding the extra seconds.
Change seconds to minutes and seconds by finding how many 60s fit.
Add and subtract durations, regrouping at 60 rather than at 100.
Compare durations written in different units by changing them to the same unit first.
Does the answer make sense?
Changing to a smaller unit makes the number bigger: minutes written in seconds, or hours written in minutes, must be at least 60 times the number of big units. In any answer your child gives in minutes and seconds, the seconds part must be less than 60.
How to practise these questions
The Basic question practises reading seconds and knowing that 60 seconds make 1 minute. The Intermediate questions add converting between seconds, minutes and hours, in both directions. If a seconds question stalls, watch that question's solution film and try it again later from Revision.
Questions parents ask
Are seconds taught in Primary 3? Yes. Measuring time in seconds is a Primary 3 outcome in the MOE syllabus. Your child also changes between seconds and minutes, and adds and subtracts short durations.
Why do minutes and seconds use 60 and not 100? Time is counted in sixties: 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. Ordinary numbers regroup at 10 and 100, so time sums need a different habit, and a clock with a seconds hand makes the 60 easy to see.
What household items help my P3 child practise seconds? Kitchen timers and microwave displays show minutes and seconds, so they make good prompts. Ask how many seconds 1:30 on the microwave is: the answer is 90 seconds.
