Elapsed Time on a Number Line

Print the page and read the directions with your child: Mark the start and end times on the number line. Draw jumps and add them. Write the elapsed time in minutes. When they finish, check the work together with the answer key.

A note explains that elapsed time is how much time passes from the start to the end. Five routine tasks each have a start time, an end time and a number line marked every 15 minutes, such as Ava does her homework from 3:40 to 4:15. The directions on the page read: Mark the start and end times on the number line. Draw jumps and add them. Write the elapsed time in minutes. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 3rd Grade telling time, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with how much time went by?. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

Treat it as a path rather than a picture: your child puts a finger on a number and hops along it, saying each number as they land. Hopping physically is what makes the line make sense. Reading it as a diagram comes much later.

Objects show how many. A number line shows order and distance, which objects cannot. It is the first tool that makes the gap between numbers visible, and it becomes essential for skip counting, comparison, and later for negative numbers and fractions.

It is the classic number line mistake and worth correcting gently. Count the jumps between numbers, not the numbers themselves. Saying "hop" out loud with each move usually fixes it within a session or two.

Mark the start and end times, then jump to the next easy time, like a quarter hour, and add the jumps. From 3:40 to 4:15 is 5 + 15 + 15 = 35 minutes.

Yes. Both sheets have an answer key.

2 printable worksheets, all free to preview. Downloads are included with a ClassWeekly free trial, and every page prints on standard 8.5 x 11 paper.

These are written for 3rd Grade students, roughly ages 8-9. Many teachers also use them a grade up for review or a grade down as an extension, so use the preview to judge the fit for a particular child.

Yes. Each one shows the Common Core code it covers on its own page, so you can check the alignment yourself rather than taking our word for it.