2nd Grade Curriculum

Second graders can look forward to the use of learning centers, science experiments, writing in cursive, field trips, holiday and cultural celebrations, discovering themselves as well as learning about their peers.  In reading/language arts, students will review phonics, learn new grammar skills and mechanics, focus on story elements and character mapping through a variety of reading materials, including reference materials, in guided reading groups.  In writing, students will practice the writing process through journaling, poetry and creative writings.  Math brings about the continued building on of skills, some being time and money, shapes, geometry, multiplication and division.  In science, students continue to use the hands-on constructivist approach to learn through FOSS Kit themes.  Social studies brings students to explore neighborhoods and communities, time lines, economics, environmental awareness and the beginnings of US History.  Students will also have the opportunity to utilize public speaking in multiple subject areas. Students will continue to build and expand on their technology skills utilizing available software programs, search engines to surf the web, editing, creating, writing and drawing through Microsoft Word, Paint, and Power Point.  Students will also continue the use of the digital camera, desktops, laptops, video cameras, Smart Boards, Promethean Boards, Document Cameras, and LCD projectors.

 

Students have the opportunity to visit special classes throughout the week which consist of Spanish, art, music appreciation, computer education, and physical education.

 

Language Arts

Writing

• Informative
• Narrative
• Persuasive

English

• Standard English
• Language Acquisition
• Vocabulary Development

Reading

• Phonics: Short vowels, long vowels, r-controlled vowels, diagraphs and vowel diagraphs, inflections, vowel diphthongs

 

• Skills: Main idea and details, make predictions, plot, fiction and nonfiction, author’s purpose, locate information, setting

 

• Strategies: Use graphic organizers, use prior knowledge, use graphic organizers, monitor comprehension reread and read ahead

 

Technology Integration

• Reading Eggs
• Study Island
• Promethean Planet
• Brain Pop
• Safari Montage
• United Streaming

 

Math

Number Sense

• Count, read, and write whole numbers and identify the place value for each digit.
• Use words, models, and expanded forms to represent numbers.
• Recognize and use multiple representations for a given number

Operations

• Understand and use the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction to solve problems and check solutions
• Find the sum or difference of two whole numbers
• Express multiplication as repeated division

 

Measurement

• Measure the length of objects using a nonstandard or standard unit
• Tell time to the nearest quarter hour and know relationships of time
• Demonstrate proficiency in matching coins to their monetary value

 

Geometry

• Describe and classify plane and solid geometric shapes according to the number and shape of faces, edges, and vertices
• Develop an understanding of perimeter and area

Algebra

• Recognize, describe, and extend patterns and determine a next term in linear patterns
• Determine missing elements in number patterns

 

Data Analysis and Probability

• Organizing, displaying, and describing data using pictographs, bar graphs, tally charts, and tables
• Make predictions from a sampling

 

Technology Integration

• Study Island
• Promethean Planet
• Brain Pop
• Safari Montage
• United Streaming

 

Science

The integration of the FOSS, full option science system, serves as a foundation for more advanced ideas that prepare our students for life in an increasingly complex scientific and technological world.  By fostering science literacy, instructional efficiency, and systemic reform, our science program is grounded in the following principles:  Student-motivated inquiry, Hands-on learning, Multisensory Methods, Student-to-Student Interaction and Discourse and Reflective Thinking.

 

Pebbles, Sand, and Silt

• Explore places where earth materials are found and ways in which they are used in people’s daily lives.
• Provide experiences that heighten students’ awareness of rocks as earth materials and natural resources.

Balance and Motion

• Understand that we live in a dynamic world where everything is in motion, or so it seems.
• Learn that not everything is moving the same way. Some things move from one place to another. Other things go around and around in a rotational motion. Still other things are stationary, stable for a time, balanced on a thin line between stop and go.

 

Changes

• Investigate physical and chemical changes that affect daily life.
• Explore changes in state, changes involving mixtures, and changes that take place quickly or over time.

 

Social Studies

• Differentiate between things that happened long ago and things that happened recently
• Demonstrate map skills by describing the absolute and relative location of people, places, and environments.
• Explain governmental institutions and practices in the United States and other countries
• Describe characteristics of communities over time
• Understand basic economic concepts

 

Technology

• Create, edit, and print a simple document
• Produce an age-appropriate project using a software program
• Use electronic primary reference sources
• Recognize  home-row keys and keyboard layout