One night, Little J hears the nocturnal Barking Owl and becomes fascinated by how the owl stays awake at night. In the morning, he is woken by the carolling of magpies and on the way to school, he is swooped by Maggie, the magpie. Miss Chen teaches the class about nocturnal animals.

Engage - Tell time to the half hour

Theme - TIME

Revisit Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Night Owl and Morning Maggie’, and draw students’ attention to the time the Barking Owl was heard, and Little J’s attempt to stay awake like a nocturnal owl. Have students predict the time the owl woke Little J, and how long, in hours and minutes, Little J stayed awake.

Discuss the length of time students usually sleep for. Have students calculate the time from when they go to bed to when they awake in the morning. Using an analogue clock face, have students demonstrate the sequence of hours that they sleep, and inquire about the use of half-hours. Collate the times from all students in the class and have students order who sleeps the longest to the shortest. Order the places for individual students on a sleep chart as ordinal numbers.

Divide the class into teams of three students. Nominate half of the groups to be the ‘Analogues’ and the other half to be the ‘Digitals’. Have each Analogue team draw a large analogue clock face using chalk on the pavement outside the class room or on the floor inside the classroom. Two members of the teams will use their bodies to be the hour and minute hands of the clock.

The Digital teams will use two members of the team to hold up large cardboard numerals to display the time. The third person in each team has to nominate a time that all teams must then display with their clocks.

Based on a series of events from the episode, the third person of each team must work out at which time one of the events takes place. When it is their turn, they announce the time, and all teams set their clocks to that time.

The nominated times must include whole hours and half hours. The teacher evaluates which of the teams set the correct time, and which of the teams are the fastest to set the correct time. Places are awarded to the fastest, most correct teams.

The series of events from the episode could include:

1.  Little J and Big Cuz arrive home from school.
2.  Old Dog lies on his couch to go to sleep.
3.  Nanna tells Little J to go to sleep and the Barking Owl wakes Old Dog.
4.  Little J wakes to the sound of the Barking Owl and starts his drawing.
5.  Little J eventually goes to sleep.
6.  Little J and Big Cuz have breakfast in the morning.
7.  Little J and Big Cuz leave for school.
8.  Little J and Big Cuz come across the magpie nest.
9.  The kids at school sing together.
10.  Miss Chen talks about micro bats.
11.  Lunch time at school.
12.  Walking home from school.
13.  Popping popcorn.
14.  B-Boy returns home.
15.  Nanna puts Little J to bed.
16.  Next morning.
17.  Nanna and Little J go for a morning walk.

Suggested resource:

• Learn How to Tell Time on a Clock