Aims of the game
Time dominoes is a simple and effective game, which enables students of CEFR levels A1-A2 to quickly learn to tell the time, and ask for or give the time in English. You can have fun using it in class with the teacher or at home with your friends.
The cards numbered from 1 to 27 have o’clock, quarter past, half past and quarter to times on them. The subsequent cards have times with minutes on them. Cards 14 and 15/37 and 38, have blank clocks, which can be used as dominoes on two different levels: simple or complete.
Games and learning activities
Here are some suggestions for games and activities, useful for stimulating and checking the students language learning. It is a good idea to start with a preliminary activity to check players’ knowledge and to get to know the cards, either at home or in class.
Contents
There are 48 domino cards. Each card has a clock face on the left and a written time on the right.
Snakes and ladders
The first card, number 1, has two squares with midday and midnight on it.
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Card 48 has the functional language asking for and giving the time: What time is it? It’s… (one o’clock, two o’clock, midday, midnight, half past seven, a quarter past nine.)
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Dominoes
The teacher or group leader can either suggest a simple version of dominoes using cards 1 to 27, or a complete version using all the cards (apart from cards 14 and 15). This can be done by placing card number one on the table, mixing the remaining cards and sharing them out between the players. The player with the card midday or midnight starts.
The teacher or the group leader can suggest this game after completing the game of dominoes. Divide the players into two teams, giving each team a coloured counter and placing a dice on each table. The two teams much reach card 1, starting from the last domino card. Each team follows an opposite route: one towards midday the other towards midnight.
The game continues in a clockwise direction, each player placing down the card which corresponds to the clock face or the written time on the previous card. If a player is unable to do this, he/she says: “Pass”. It is then the turn of the next player. When a player lays a card down, he/she must answer the question: What time is it? The winner is the player who lays all their cards first.
Players from each team take turns to throw the dice and move their counter forward according to the number on the dice: each domino card corresponds to two squares / two points. When players reach a new square they must say what the time is on the clock or read out the written time. You can apply penalties or rewards, depending on the amount of time available to play. The team that reaches card number 1 first, wins.
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