Materials for the lesson

1-2 kg beans (preferably small)
I piece of textile/bed-sheet about 4×4, preferably of a bright color.
Numerous small paper bags (for the seconds) Numerous middle size paper bags (for the minutes). 60 small should fit in one middle size bag.
Large bags (for the hours). 60 medium bags should fit in one large Hour bag.
Paper clips
Some thin rope or string about 15 meters.
The string and the bags will create a Train with hanging wagons.
A carton box.

The teacher’s bell

Layout of the classroom

The desks are placed on the sides creating 3 small nests.
They are the Minute Stop, the Hour Stop and the End-of-the-Day Stop (last journey stop)
In the middle the textile is placed and all the beans are scattered.
The string is tied and runs all around the classroom from one stop to another.
It begins from the cloth were the children collect beans/seconds and ends were the Day ends and the large bags with the hours.
The children are divided in 4 groups.
The minutes (the team with most members)
The seconds (lesser children than the team with seconds)
The Hours (even lesser children that the minutes)
The Day (Few children maybe even just one)

(For example in a class of 25 students, 13 children=seconds, 7 children=minutes, 3 children=hours and 2 children=day)

Phase 1

The children of the seconds team fall upon the cloth (with the beans) and count to collect 60 beans each. They put them in the small bags.

Each bag with the 60 beans is closed with the paper-clip and hanged on the string at its beginning.

Phase 2

One student pulls the paper-bag of Seconds- like a hanging wagon-bringing it at the Minutes Station (60 beans/seconds=1 minute), where the children of that station take it (and maybe also counts them). Then the same happens to reach the Hour Station. There they empty the bags of Seconds, in the large bag of one hour. In that bag all the smaller bags of 60 minutes are collected until one hour is completed.

Phase 3

One student pushes like a flying wagon the bag full of minutes to the Hour Station. There, the students of the hours receive it and count the beans. When they finish counting, they put it in the large bag (1 hour) (super market-shop bag) and lead it to the END/DAY station, where the children there will receive it and collect 24 such bags, filled with “minutes” and “seconds”.

The children will continue the collection of beans/seconds and putting them into bags they lead them to the “Minutes Station”, hanging by the string, by a paper-clip, like a wagon.

When they collect 60 “Minutes Bags”, the according children drive them to “Hour Station”. Accordingly when they collect 60 Hour Bags, they put them in a box and take them to the Day Station. When there are 24 Hours in the Day Station, then they take them to the Final-Day-End Stop.

The Teacher can decide how to arrange the beans so as to have less bags.

i.e. instead of 60 beans there can be 6 (each bean can count for 10), therefore have 6 beans in one “seconds” bag)

The same can happen with the string as it can be replaced by cars/toys that the children can bring from home. So, during the action, the children can load the cars with bean bags and lead them to the according stations.

The Teacher is free to imagine more solutions or more suitable ones for the space. Also, such an action can take place outside by collecting stone etc…

Presentation and description of the lesson.

In the last 15 minutes children can return to their desks and listen to the theory of the lesson and present their questions and answers to their teacher for the best understanding.