To help Year 7 students learn how to use military time (the 24-hour clock), here are some fun and easy strategies.

1. Learning to Change Time Formats

Start by teaching students how to switch between the 12-hour and 24-hour formats. Here’s how:

• Morning times stay the same. For example, $8:00 \,AM$ is written as $08:00$.
• For afternoon times, just add 12. So, $3:00 \,PM$ becomes $15:00$.

2. Using Real-Life Examples

Bring in examples like flight times or TV shows. You could ask, "If a show starts at $20:30$, what time is that in the 12-hour format?" This makes learning military time more interesting and helpful.

3. Using Timelines and Pictures

Make a simple visual timeline that shows both time formats side by side. Seeing the times laid out like this helps students understand how they relate to each other, making it easier to solve time problems.

4. Working in Groups

Encourage students to work together by giving them problems to solve in pairs. For example, ask, "If a train leaves at $16:45$ and takes $2$ hours and $30$ minutes to get to its destination, what time does it arrive?" This allows students to chat with each other about different ways to find the answer.

By using these methods, students will get better and feel more confident about working with military time in all kinds of situations.