2nd Grade Elapsed Hours Word Problems Worksheet: How Long Did It Last?

On a long car ride, a seven-year-old asks "How long now?" so often that the answer stops meaning anything. This 2nd grade elapsed hours word problems worksheet turns that question around. Each of the eight stories gives two times, a start time and an end time, and your child finds the hours in between. Owen spends an afternoon and evening at a new mall, while Ethel goes to work in the morning and leaves in the afternoon. A class visits an aquarium, a father and son pick apples until noon, and Brice takes a short baking class. A second page gives the answer key, worked out on a time line.

Why the hours between two times are a distance

Finding how long something lasted is like measuring a gap. You start at one time, stop at another, and count the hours you crossed. So a time line works the same way as a ruler.

The answer key draws it out. For Owen, seven little arcs hop from 3 to 10 on an evening line, one for each hour at the mall.

However, several stories cross from morning into afternoon. Then the clock numbers start again after 12, and your child must keep counting past noon instead of subtracting the numbers. That one idea is the heart of the page. Noon is the bridge.

At the table: Ethel and the cooking marathon

Start with story h, the baking class from 11 until noon. Ask, "How many hops from 11 to 12?" A one-hour answer builds confidence.

Story c, Ethel at work, is where most children slip. They see 7 and 4 and subtract, getting 3. Instead of correcting, draw a line from 7 to 12, then on to 4, and ask, "How many hops did we make?"

Story g, the cooking marathon, runs past midnight, which is a real stretch for second graders. For example, a child may stop counting at 12. Ask, "Does the clock stop at midnight, or keep going?" Also, counting on fingers, one per hour, helps your child keep the long count steady.

Timing a real day

Elapsed time sticks when it is your child's own day. Note when school starts and when it ends, then count the hours together at dinner. On a weekend, write down when a visit begins and ends, and ask how long it lasted.

A chalk game of Hopscotch can become a time line: write one hour in each square, from 9 to 3, and let your child hop and count the hours aloud.

Also, a kitchen timer set for one hour makes the length of an hour feel real.

Once you finish the page, praise the counting: "You kept going past noon. That was the tricky part, and you got through it."