Grade Level Curriculum Guides

Second Grade

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The Second Grade curriculum focuses on strengthening and reinforcing beginning reading, writing, and communication skills. It is our aim for Second Graders to become independent, confident readers. As well, they should be able to express themselves in written form with creativity and purpose.  In addition, our second grade students should grow to be effective communicators.To achieve these goals,  we will expose our Second Graders to the following abilities and skills:

ORAL COMMUNICATION

·        Listening to and following oral directions.

·        Participation in class discussions using  complete sentences and appropriate vocabulary.

·        Speaking with clarity and expression in front of an audience.

·        Retelling a story with detail and in sequential order.

·        Responding to critical thinking questions using interpretive skills.

·        Listening  and responding to others in a respectful manner.

READING

The Second Grade reading curriculum focuses on the development and refinement of reading skills. In this grade a great deal of emphasis is placed on the fact that reading is  for both pleasure and information. Teachers will use various types of literature in order to  expose students to the following skills:

·        Reinforcement of comprehension skills.

·        Further development of language and vocabulary skills.

·        Decoding unfamiliar words by using phonic skills, sight vocabulary, and context clues.

·        Identification of the components of a story such as plot, characters, setting, and conflict.

·        Responding to all types of literature

·        Using literature to predict outcomes, compare, summarize, make inferences and generalizations.

·        Interpretation of drawings and illustrations as a means to determine the plot.

·        Distinguishing between reality and fantasy, fact and opinion.

·        Development of reading skills so the student understands and follows written directions.

·        Identification and recognition of contractions, compound words, suffixes and prefixes.

·        Refinement of spelling skills.

·        Ability to put words in alphabetical order.
 

WRITING

In Second Grade the students will participate in a variety of written expressions such as poetry and story writing.  Through these activities we will expose the students to the following skills and outcomes:

·        Writing complete sentences.

·        Using capitalization and punctuation correctly.

·        Utilizing developmental spelling when writing creatively.

·        Creating stories that are in correct sequential order.

·        Beginning to edit and revise for final draft.

·        Introduction to the use of a dictionary or glossary.

 

SOCIAL STUDIES

In the Second Grade social studies program, the student explores rural, urban, and suburban communities, focusing on the United States.  The students= own community can serve as an example for studying and understanding other communities.  Communities are studied using five perspectives: social/cultural, political, economic, geographic, and historic.  The concepts, content and understandings and activities stress the child=s role as a social being and self-directed learner.  Activities are designed so that students will understand that:

·        Families are found in all communities as a basic unit of society.

·        Family and community members depend upon one another.

·        Rural, urban, and suburban communities have social/cultural similarities and differences.

·        All members of the school community have rights, rules, and responsibilities.

·        Students will be encouraged to exhibit exemplary social behavior to enable them to live and work in a community.

·        Every community has rules and laws to govern and protect its members.

·        Our country elects leaders who make, explain, and carry out laws.

·        Citizenship includes understanding our local national symbols, celebrations, and holidays.

·        People in all communities are both producers and consumers of goods and services.

·        Communities collect taxes to provide services for all the people.

·        Geography influences all communities.

·        Maps and globes enhance geographic awareness.

·        Changes in seasons affect life in many communities.

·        Students will appreciate ethnic diversity

·        within our community.

·        Communities of the future may be different.

·        Throughout the school year, students will be exposed to timely national and world events. 

MATHEMATICS

The second grade mathematics curriculum is designed to expand, introduce, and enrich mathematical concepts in a developmental order for young children in this age group.  We focus on concepts, computation, and problem solving relative to everyday living.  Hands-on activities are incorporated to promote understanding of number relationships. The skills focused on in this grade include the following:

·        Review of basic  addition and subtraction facts including problem solving techniques.

·        Expansion of the concept of fact families and turn around facts (2+3=5; 3+2=5; 5-3=2;5-2=3).

·        Using advanced patterns and graphing techniques to solve problems.

·        Introduction of standardized linear measurement including inches, feet, yards, meters, and centimeters.

·        Introduction of liquid measurement capacities such as cups, pints, quarts, and liters.

·        Expansion of place value concepts of ones, tens, and hundreds place.

·        Modeling and writing numbers before, after, and between.

·        Counting forward and backwards by multiples of  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10.

·        Understanding the concepts of greater than and less than and writing the example by using the symbols < and >.

·        Reviewing ordinal numbers; odd and even numbers.

·        Expansion of telling time to the quarter hour and minute.

·        Development of coin values and problem solving using currency.

·        Introduction of two and three digit addition and subtraction with and without regrouping.

·        Refining knowledge of fractions as equal parts of a whole.

·        Identification of solid figures including the concepts of symmetry and polygons.

·        Introduction of beginning notions of multiplication and division using sets and manipulatives.

·        Expansion of calendar skills including the number of days in each month.

SCIENCE

The science curriculum is based on a hands-on approach to learning.  It develops fundamental problem solving skills such as planning, obtaining, organizing and analyzing data, generalizing and decision making. Our three major areas of study include interactions of objects, measurement, and plant and animal life cycles. The skills introduced include: 

PHYSICAL SCIENCE

·        Interactions

·        Identification of how objects change and affect each other.

·        Experimentation with magnets, heat, and  light and observation of the various changes that take place.

·        Realizing that solids and liquids can interact and create changes.

·        Measurement

·        Comparison of objects by using standard and nonstandard units of measurement.

·        Exploration of the properties of length, area, temperature, volume and weight.

LIFE SCIENCE

·        Plant and Animal Life Cycles

·        Understanding the differences and similarities between living and nonliving things.

·        Investigation of plant growth with each student raising their own plant.

·        Observation and recording of data related to plant and animal life cycles.

·        Health

·        Recognizing the importance of keeping healthy and fit.

·        Awareness of drug and alcohol abuse, good hygiene, nutrition, and safety.

·        The Second Grade science curriculum allows for the flexibility to supplement the units of study with other relevant topics such as environmental studies, solar system, and dinosaurs.