Elapsed Time: Practice at Home, Grade 4

Elapsed time is how much time passes between a start and an end. In Grade 4, children solve problems with hours and minutes, and a number line makes it easier.

What your child is working on

If a movie starts at 2:15 and ends at 4:00, how long was it? Jump from 2:15 to 3:00 (45 minutes), then to 4:00 (1 hour). Together: 1 hour 45 minutes.

Try it at home

Use real events: when a show starts and ends, how long the drive to school takes, the time between bedtime and waking. Draw a line on paper with the start time on the left and the end time on the right. Jump to the next hour, then jump by hours, and then add the leftover minutes.

You can also go the other way: “Practice starts at 3:30 and lasts 50 minutes. When does it end?” Count on from the start, to the hour first, then the rest.

Where children slip

Mixing up hours and minutes, for example treating 4:00 − 2:15 as 2 hours 15 minutes. Remind the child that there are 60 minutes in an hour, so subtracting does not work digit by digit.

Practice online

The free Elapsed time word problems: 2 hours or less page is a gentle start. Longer events are on the Grade 4 skills list.