Second Grade
Subjects of Study
Reading Text: Open Court Reading (SRA/McGraw-Hill) The Open Court text guides the students to utilize a variety of reading strategies by exposing them to various literature genres such as fiction, non-fiction, classics, contemporary works and poetry. At this stage, students have a better grasp of reading and are more able to focus on interpreting, comprehending and evaluating what they read. They will continue to utilize the skills of cause and effect, identifying main ideas, making inferences, drawing conclusions, understanding the author’s point of view, compare/contrast, sequencing events and identifying a fact or opinion.
Phonics Text: Phonics (Modern Curriculum
Press) The phonics program helps to reinforce the decoding
skills that students have been utilizing in previous grades
to read unfamiliar words. This program works hand in hand
with the spelling program to ensure that students are getting
a balanced amount of decoding and encoding practice.
Spelling Text: Spelling Workout Level C
(Modern Curriculum Press) The spelling program provides
students with opportunities to practice encoding. Students
are exposed to a new spelling rule each week and practice
applying that rule through a variety of activities such as
spelling games and spelling dictation. The students are
tested at the end of the week with a spelling dictation test
that will include some of their list words and other words
they have not practiced but which have the same spelling rule
as their list words.
Writing Text: Voyages in English Students continue to work on the writing process and are introduced to various types of writing. They are able to plan, draft, revise, and edit short stories, letters, poems, essays, and short reports. Students will learn to organize, outline and expand upon their ideas. Students are learning to implement more complex and compound sentences into their writing. In second grade, students are introduced to the Excellence in Writing program which will be used in each subsequent grade up to the eighth grade. This program is an excellent tool to enhance and focus the students’ writing and give them concrete skills needed to become better writers.
Handwriting Text: D’Nealian (Scott Foresman Addison-Wesley) Students are continuing to build a solid mastery of proper handwriting in print and will be introduced to cursive letters in the second half of the year.
Math Text: Progress in Mathematics (Sadlier) At this grade level, students are solidifying their addition and subtraction skills. They will continue to work with patterning, word problems, fact families, interpreting graphs and tables, estimating, mental math, place value, even and odd numbers, time, money, measurement, fractions and geometrical figures and concepts. They will be introduced to Roman numerals, multiplication and division. Students continue to enhance their skills in mental computation, speed math, problem solving and mathematical reasoning and inquiry.
Science Text: Science Discovery Works (Houghton Mifflin) Students will learn about and explore the topics of life cycles of plants and animals, energy and motion, Earth science, and the human body and its systems. Through many hands on activities and scientific investigation, students will come to realize that science is a process in which we seek to observe, describe, compare, measure, classify, predict, infer, hypothesize and experiment in order to understand the world around us. They will see how the Earth fits into the balance of our universe. Students will also see how life on Earth is a balance that is often shifted by our actions or lack of action.
Social Studies Text: Core Knowledge History and Geography (Pearson Learning) Students will continue to build upon their knowledge of U.S. history, ancient civilizations, immigration and citizenship. Through the study of these topics, students are better able to categorize these different events in a systematic and chronological way. Students will understand how certain events affected other events and time periods. They will see how the beliefs and ideals of certain time periods influenced the people in that period to do things in a certain manner.
Religion Text: The Treasure of My Catholic Faith (Circle Press) This year the primary focus is on the basic premises of moral law as a foundation for conscience, grace, the Church and the Sacraments as the children prepare to receive First Reconciliation and First Communion.
Daily Schedule
8:45-10:30 - Language Arts
10:30-10:45 - Recess
10:45-11:10 - Language Arts
11:10-12:00 - History
12:00-12:30 - Lunch
12:30-1:00 - Recess
1:00-1:45 Math
1:45-2:30 Science
2:30-3:15 Religion
Special Classes
PE - Tuesdays and Thursday
Music - Tuesdays
Art - Fridays
Spanish - Mondays and Thursdays
Extended Care
Before School Care is available from 7:30am and After School Care is available until 6:00pm. Detailed information and arrangements for enrollment can be obtained in the office.
Lunch
Students may bring their own lunch or take advantage of Impromptu Catering, our daily hot lunch provider.
Homework
Homework consists of phonics, reading, and math. Homework is sent home daily and should take no more than 30 minutes; homework is not meant to overwhelm the child. Marked work is returned on Fridays. The homework folder may also be used to send home notices and reminders.