Second Grade
Language Arts
The second grade language arts curriculum includes reading, writing, spelling and hand-writing. It is integrated through all core subjects. Children move from learning to read to reading to learn. During reader’s workshop, the children select, read, discuss, and write about the books that they have chosen. This fosters independent reading through book talks, mini-lessons, and guided reading. The children learn how to use reading strategies to insure success. Mini-lessons reinforce strategies and areas of focus. Genre is taught and explored through reading and writing. Through conferences, small group and large group reading and discussions, the children are supported as they move toward fluency. The writing program also utilizes a workshop approach that includes grammar, the mechanics of writing, writer’s skills, creative thinking, strategies for organizing and sequencing written material, and the writer’s voice. We explore mentor texts, fairy tales, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and biography. In handwriting, we directly teach and review printed letters and the mechanics of writing before beginning cursive writing instruction mid-year. Spelling is woven throughout our curriculum and directly taught at each child’s level.
Math
Second grade math skills and content are: Numbers and Numeration (reading and identifying place-value of whole numbers into the thousands; comparing numbers; working with fractions; using money to develop place-value and decimal concepts); Operations and Computation (recalling addition and subtraction facts to 12; working with fact families; adding and subtracting using regrouping into the hundreds; making reasonable estimates; using repeated addition and subtraction to solve multiplication and subtraction; calculating values of coin and bill combinations); Data and Chance (using graphs, number stories and charts to solve problems); Geometry (classifying polygons; measuring area and perimeter; and constructing 2- and 3-dimensional shapes); Measurement and Reference Frames (using tools to measure length, weight, temperature, and capacity; using U.S. customary and metric units to the half inch and centimeter; using clocks and calendars); Patterns, Functions, and Algebra (exploring number patterns, rules for number sequences, and relations between numbers). Students use a combination of reading, analysis and application throughout the program.
Science
Second grade science encourages students to carefully observe and describe the world around them by using their senses to reflect on items in their environment and to chart the change over time. Students explore life cycles of plants and animals, various properties of sound, and the formation and types of rocks and minerals.
Social Studies
In second grade, the students broaden their sense of place. Students gain insights into their communities and make meaningful connections to the larger world. The students learn about the location of St. John’s and their homes in relation to the bigger community including our city, state, country, and world. A main aspect of our curriculum remains our global project with a school in New Brunswick, Canada. Students examine landforms and consider how they influenced where various Native American tribes settled and used the land’s existing resources.
