In our reading units, we introduce new vocabulary, develop reading fluency and build comprehension skills. We discuss the main idea, characters, and setting of a story. We introduce the plot of a story and drawing conclusions. We learn the differences in fantasy and realism. We use Accelerated Reader to further build comprehension skills while giving the students the opportunity to choose their reading material.
In our writing units, we write weekly journal entries and creative writings. We explore Haiku poems, acrostic poems, rhyming poems, rebus poems, and listing poems. We use the Step Up to Writing program to further build the students writing skills. The students are taught how to organize a paragraph using a topic sentence, details, examples and a closing sentence. Transitions words are introduced and used by midyear. Students are taught how to write and use an outline. By the end of the year, a second grade student understands proper paragraph format includes a topic sentence, details, transitions and a closing sentence.
In our grammar units, we review proper sentence structure and the different types of sentences. We introduce nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns and comma usage.
In handwriting, we review all of the manuscript letters. The students learn all of the cursive letters and begin writing in cursive the last two months of school.
In math, students are expected to have mastery of their addition and subtraction facts by the end of second grade. The students begin the year exploring numbers to 1,000 and place value. The students learn 3-digit addition and subtraction with and without regrouping, and we introduce multiplication and division. The students expand their knowledge of patterns and explore functions. The students learn linear measurement, mass, and volume using metric and customary units. The students learn how to estimate to the nearest 10’s. The students explore money, time, fractions, and geometry.
In social studies, the students learn about current events each week when reading Time for Kids magazine. The students are introduced to mapping skills and learn how to properly read a map. In the spring, the students complete a Louisiana unit including state symbols, major cities and bodies of water, bordering states, and wildlife. The culminating activity is Louisiana Day where the students put on a fais-do-do, cook Louisiana cuisine, and the Audubon Zoo Wetlands Express brings native animals and artifacts.