Time Zones

The rock song "Time Zones" is a fun way to get your students familiar with the concept that the time of day is relative to your location. In a world where it is easier than ever to reach out to someone from across the globe, it's important to know what time of day it is when trying to reach people in other areas. We're not going to lie to you – it is incredibly difficult teaching about time zones in a short song for children! Because we couldn't fit all of the details into it, this could be a cross curricular opportunity to expand on this information outside of the song, perhaps with another teacher.

The verses of this song are sung fast, and the rhythm of the accompaniment track has a double time feel to accentuate the speed. Maybe do some vocal warm-ups or some tongue twisters prior to singing. If you conduct the song, remember that if your singers are dragging, you should conduct with a smaller pattern.

The chorus section at bar 27 has a half-time feel and incorporates an optional hand clap part. The clapping is technically on beat 3 of every measure, but "feels" like it's on 2 and 4 with the half-time feel, following along with the snare drum. If you do incorporate the hand claps, maybe have your students raise their hands up high and encourage the audience to join in.

Some notes on the content of the song - Some sources say that there are 24 time zones. Other sources say there are more because different regions split it further into more sections. To keep it simple, we reference the 24 time zones because it makes the math come out so perfectly. TimeAndDate.com and WorldClock.com were our main resources/guides.

The earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours. A globe/sphere is 360 degrees, so 360 divided by 24 hours equals 15 degrees wide. Every 15 degrees wide is a one hour difference. There's a new time zone every 15 degrees. But this isn't a hard and fast rule because it can change depending on where a land mass ends or where a country's border ends in relation to the next time zone. As we mentioned earlier, it's hard to fit this all into one short song. Just know that we are covering the basics, and not all of the details.