Grade 2

List of 11 items.

• Art

  All art classes utilize the elements of art of line, color, shape, texture, space, and form. A variety of media is explored through the year including markers, crayons, stencils, oil pastels, and clay. Students study artist Wassily Kandinsky and Leonardo DaVinci. Special emphasis is placed on refining fine motor skills and revising, refining, and developing artwork. 

• Math

  •Computation: Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies. Sing addition and subtraction to solve word problems within 100. Work with equal groups of objects to gain foundations for multiplication.

  •Operations: Understand place value through three digits. Compare three-digit numbers.  Fluently add or subtract within 100 using place value. Count within 1000.

  •Measurement: Understand the basics of measurement using standard units to measure lengths. Tell time to the nearest five minutes. Solve word problems using pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollar bills.

  •Data: Draw basic data sets using pictographs and bar graphs. Solve basic word problems using information presented in the graph.

  •Problem Solving: Solve word problems with multiple steps.

• Music

  The second-grade music program emphasizes vocal, instrumental, and movement development. Students focus on proper rhythm and instrument technique using their voices and the Orff instruments. Emphasis is placed on harmony as well as musicality.  Students will recognize and play quarter note, half note, eight note, and rest.   Second grade performs several times a year in our fall and spring musical concerts and in a whole-class mini musical staged with movement and song. 

• Phonics

  •Phonics and Word Recognition: Know and use the sound-spelling correspondence for long and short vowels in one-syllable and two-syllable words. Read and understand words with common prefixes and suffixes. Recognize and read irregularly spelled words.

• Physical Education

  Movement and exercise are an important part of the school day. All grade levels have Physical Education three days a week. Physical Education classes develop fitness and skills and focus on life-long health and wellness. In grade 2 students focus on foot skills, balance, and how to effectively strike objects.  Hand eye coordination and cooperation are emphasized. 

• Reading

  •Key Ideas and Details: Determine the central message, lesson, or moral of a text.  Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. Describe the connection between a series of events.

  •Craft and Structure: Describe how words and phrases supply meaning to the text. Describe the overall structure of a text or story.  Know and use text features to locate key facts. Identify the main purpose of a text.

  •Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Describe how reasons support the points the author makes in a text. Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story.

  •Fluency: Read a text with purpose, understanding, appropriate pacing, phrasing, and expression. Self-correct when a word recognition error is made.

• Research Lab

  The Lower School Library is a place of discovery.  All Lower School students visit the library regularly and can explore their interests by delving further into books and online sources for deeper learning.  During Research Lab class, students learn a variety of research, technology, and digital citizenship skills.  In second grade, some examples of specific units and topics include: research skills, map skills, choosing a “just right” book, understanding nonfiction text features, using a variety of apps and websites for content creation, distinguishing between facts and opinions, identifying the purpose of media messages, basic internet safety, balancing online and offline time, and password privacy.  Of course, students also enjoy reading for pleasure and look forward to checking out books to enjoy at home. 

• Science

  Topics of Study: Cells and Animal Cells, Human Body, Cycles of Nature, Magnets, Simple Machines, Insects

• Social and Emotional Learning

  All homeroom teachers start the day with a morning meeting, which builds community and sets students up for a successful day. These morning meetings include four components and are based on the Responsive Classroom best-practices: 1) greeting everyone by name, 2) sharing important information about our lives and listening actively to our peers while asking clarifying questions, 3) a brief activity around social-emotional learning, and 4) watching community announcements and reading a short message that reviews the schedule for the day.    
     
  In addition, to morning meeting, all homerooms include a “Social Emotional Learning” block in the schedule in which students actively learn and practice a core set of social and emotional competencies: “C.A.R.E.S.: cooperation, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy, and self-control.   

  Our Lower School counselor visits each class once per week for a focused SEL lesson as well.    

• Social Studies

  Topics of Study: Geography, Ancient India, Modern Japan, Ancient China, Ancient Greece, Introduction to American Government, Westward Expansion

• Writing

  •Text Types and Purposes: Write opinion pieces to share an opinion and supporting evidence on a chosen topic. Write an informational text to introduce a topic, provide facts and definitions about the topic, and provide a concluding statement or section. Write a narrative text in which they recount a well-elaborated short sequence of events.

  •Research: Participate in shared research and writing projects by gathering information from sources to answer an inquiry question.

  •Language: Produce, expand, and rearrange complete simple and compound sentences. Capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names. Use commas in greetings and closing of letters. Generalize learned spelling patterns.

  •Production and Distribution of Writing: With guidance, work through the writing process to edit, revise, and publish a piece of writing.