What time is it?

We are almost finished with our Math curriculum for the year! The last unit is on telling time. Teaching time to a 5 year old is a little challenging, especially because I've known how to do it for 30 years now. It's so easy for me to automatically just think in terms of 5 for the minutes, or rounding up or down, 3, 6, and 9, for the 15 minute intervals, and, well you get the picture. Now trying to think like a 5 year old, now that's a challenge!
Two weeks ago, she learned the hours- and that is pretty straightforward. Last week, she learned to tell time by 5 minute increments. She learned how to count by 5's earlier in the year, so this was easy for her. This week, she learned how the hours and the minutes work together, and how to tell the difference between the minute and the hour.  One thing I did like was that in the video for this week, Steve (the creator of MUS) explains the hour and minutes working together by giving a birthday as an example for the hours. So if you are 5, you are 5 all the way until you are 6- you don't turn 6 the next day. As he was explaining this, he used the minute hand to show 5 minutes after 5, 10 minutes after 5, etc. I saw the lightbulb go off in her head.
We built a clock using our blocks. Here is what it looks like without the hands:

The clock is built in 5 minute increments. The light blue represents the number 5. I need to get more blocks because we ran out of 5 half way through. Then we used 4 and 1, and 2 and 3 to complete the clock. For the hours, we used the corresponding color for the hours. The bars only go to 10, so we added a 1 and 2 block for 11 and 12. The hour blocks also go upside down so she can differentiate between the hour and minutes. The hour hand is also upside down and the minute hand is right side up.

Making the clock match the problem in the book.

She's getting it!

I love that she gets to do hands on and I can see the wheels turning. I really think she gets more than she lets on. I put the minute hand on the 4 and immediately she said 20 and then went "Um, I mean 5, 10, 15, oh it's 20." Little stinker!