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What can you do in half an hour? Children discuss what they can do in that time with examples from their lives. Sabrina is shown how to find half a clock face by folding it in half, and uses this to move the minute hand to show half past. The fact that this is 30 minutes is noted and provides opportunities to relate half of sixty minutes to half an hour. Sabrina meets an Olympic athlete and discovers she can swim around 120 lengths in half an hour. In order to time the athlete, Sabrina needs to work out how many lengths she can swim in one minute (four) - and how long it takes to swim each length (15 seconds).

Explore half by finding half of: different shapes (including a circle), 60 counters (sharing equally between two plates or a 60 number line (by folding a piece of paper in half). Help children to recognise that half means into two equal parts. Find out how many ways they can fold a circle in half. As a practical activity, ask children to turn all the way round and then turn half way round or move the minute hand on a clock half way round starting at 12. Can they move the minute hand half an hour starting from different numbers?