Countdown Timers for Your Classroom

While I may not use countdown timers every day in our class, it can be fun to mix them in throughout the week. I find I use them for clean-up times in the classroom at the end of the day, when energy and focus are at their all-time lows!

There are several helpful sites I wanted to share, as well as some tutorials I found for creating and inserting timers into your PowerPoint presentations.

Online Stopwatch 

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First, my favorite site is easily Online Stopwatch . Not only do they have a multitude of timer choices, they are all very classroom-friendly and can be set up in no time. Some of our class favorites include the racers, since it gives something fun for the finished kids to enjoy as others hustle to clean up and root for their favorite runner.

Other timers on this site are less energetic, which provides a better atmosphere when you're using a countdown for think time or work time. My personal favorite is the candle timer that burns down and has a nice chime sound at the end.

One of my recent discoveries these past few months was their Holiday Timer section. What a hoot! The Snowman Race is our new favorite and the winner is always random, so it always keeps the kids' attention. All of these timers switch easily to full screen so they can be the primary focus during the countdown.

Online Clock 

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Another festive option is found here, with calming backgrounds and the timer counting down digitally in the foreground. You can choose the size of the numbers, which I really like so I can make them a focus if I need to, or keep them smaller to enjoy the background more.

One thing to note, there are ads that show up on the end page when the alarm is finished. Your district may block them, but I always like to point out when that may be an issue.

YouTube Favorites

One of the easiest things to do is to search YouTube for the length of time you require. I did five minutes and found this cool one:

And ten minutes to find this:


I like this one because there is a gentle cricket sound at the end, so it's good for quiet work time. There are so many choices, you just need to know how long you'll need and you're all set!

And if you're concerned about pop-up ads, you can submit the video to ViewPure HERE to get them removed. I always use this site when I'm showing a video in class to remove any possible distractions.

Embedding into PowerPoint

If you use PowerPoint, I found two amazing step-by-step tutorials to help you create and/or insert your own countdown timers to go inside of your presentation.

To learn how to create a countdown on PowerPoint, click HERE.

To learn how to insert a countdown on PowerPoint, click HERE.

Both will take you to Tekhnologic's site where you will find a ton of resources for your presentations, including a Bingo and Jeopardy game, even a spinning wheel to download! It's a great site to bookmark and come back to any time you need some engaging tools for your PowerPoint!

I hope these resources can help mix your countdowns up a bit. Whether it's for think time, partner time, clean-up time, or more, these can fit into your schedule easily and provide some fun for your students at the same time.