What is the Elapsed Time Number Line Strategy?

If your students struggle to determine the elapsed time, try teaching it using an open number line!  What is the elapsed time number line strategy? Here’s a quick rundown!

Follow these steps for how to use the open number line strategy for reaching elapsed time:

• Have the student draw an open number line.
• Record the starting time on the far left.
• Teach them to make jumps to “friendly, landmark” times.
• Record the time you land under the number line and record the amount of time that has elapsed above the jump.
• Once you progress to the end time, simply add up the increments of minutes above the jump, and if necessary, convert those minutes into hours and minutes.

Differentiated Elapsed Time on a Number Line Worksheets

This pair of printable elapsed time worksheets on a number line gives your students two levels of elapsed time practise. Each worksheet includes an example problem demonstrating the number line strategy, then an additional nine problems for students to practise determining the duration of time. 

Your resource download includes the following:

• Number Line Elapsed Time Worksheet (Five-Minute Increments)
• Number Line Elapsed Time Worksheets (Single-Minute Increments)

Download and Print Your Elapsed Time On a Number Line Activities

Your resources are ready to go! Click the dropdown arrow on the download button to select the editable Google Slides or printable PDF files. Download, print, and go!

More Elapsed Time Activities!

Don’t stop there! We’ve got more activities and resources that cut down on lesson planning time:  

teaching resource

Time to the Hour and Half Hour Match-Up

Match cards with three different representations of time to practise reading clocks and time in their written form.

teaching resource

Telling Time to the Nearest Five Minutes – Interactive Activities

Read different clock faces to the nearest 5 minutes with two difficulty levels for varied abilities.