Time: Seconds and Minutes

The Concept of Time 

Seconds and Minutes

We have lots of ways of measuring time. Sometimes a clock is used to measure how many hours have passed in a day. Sometimes less specific words, like before and after, are used to describe when something happened or will happen. Knowing how to measure time helps us understand things like how long it will take cookies to bake, when you should go to bed, and how long it is until your birthday. 

Here are some specific measurements of time.

Seconds

A second is a very small amount of time, about the time it takes for Mommy to say "Mississippi." Mommy is going to set the count-down timer for one second...

Wow! That was fast. Sometimes people will measure time in units less than a second, but for most people a second is the smallest measure of time they use in their normal day.

Minutes

A group of sixty seconds is called a minute. A minute is also a fairly small amount of time. It takes about a minute for Daddy to make Aiden's oatmeal in the morning. It's about the time it takes to wash your hands. It's also about the length of two commercials during a video. Now, Mommy is going to set the count-down timer for one minute...

That took a little more time, but it was still pretty fast. People use minutes to measure lots of things like how long it takes for food to cook or how long a car ride is going to take.

Today, we're going to time some of the things we do everyday and write down how many minutes and seconds each thing took.