Elementary School Curriculum: Second Grade
Fine Arts
Second graders will be introduced to new techniques with the media explored
in first grade. They will have the opportunity to develop new effects
using colored pencils, crayons, markers and tissue paper. The art and
science curriculum are integrated in two special projects studying dinosaurs
and sea life.
- Drawing Techniques - facial and body structure
- Collage Techniques - landscapes, abstracts
- Mobiles - Geometric Shapes
- Painting - Color Theory for Emotion and Content
- Ethnic Art - cultural diversity
Language Arts
The second grade language arts curriculum focuses on reading, writing,
listening and speaking, as well as written and oral English language conventions.
It seeks to develop students' abilities to use oral and written English
effectively with emphasis on grammar, mechanics, vocabulary, and spelling.
Students learn to write complete sentences, paragraphs, stories, reports,
poems, friendly letters, and simple research papers. Second graders are
encouraged to apply their communication skills by means of oral presentations
and oral reports. They participate in discussions, retell stories, and
recount experiences. They learn to answer comprehension questions on three
levels: literal, interpretive, and critical. Students write predictions
and outcomes for each story that they read, and are able to construct
a story map. They further develop decoding skills and auditory discrimination
of various phonetic sounds and patterns. Students follow the Houghton
Mifflin curriculum and explore, through three basal reading books, a variety
of skills and concepts. Some skills second graders learn are to:
- Read fluently and comprehend grade-level materials; identify the topic and details
- Write in a variety of genres that develop a central idea
- Compare and contrast plots, settings, and characters
- Understand the purpose of various reference materials such as the dictionary and encyclopedia
- Speak and write clearly by using age-appropriate standard English conventions
- Identify and use correctly various parts of speech
- Distinguish between fact and opinion, real and imaginary
- Recognize and apply such spelling patterns as digraphs, diphthongs, consonant clusters, and variant vowel sounds
Math
In second grade, the students continue to develop a number sense. They
learn more about the relationship between numbers, quantities, and place
value. They master number facts in addition and subtraction, and add and
subtract two-, three-, and four-digit numbers. Students work with trading,
both borrowing and carrying, and are introduced to the concept of fractional
parts. The children also develop skills in measurement, geometry, estimation,
algebra, statistics, and data analysis. They apply mathematical reasoning
to make decisions about how to solve problems. We use the Scott Foresman-Addison
Wesley mathematics curriculum, which is aligned with current National
Council of Mathematics standards, at one level above grade level. Math
is integrated into art activities and projects, and is reinforced with
software programs in the computer lab. Some of the skills and concepts
the second graders learn in math are to:
- Count, read, and write whole numbers to 100,000 and identify the place value for each digit
- Recognize and use fact families in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
- Relate problem situations to number sentences involving processes noted above
- Tell time to the minute
- Compare amounts of coins and make change
- Identify lines of symmetry and make simple symmetrical designs
- Collect, organize, and record numerical data and interpret the data on graphs
- Determine the approach, strategies, and mathematical operations to be used in a problem
Music
Students in second grade develop the love of music through many experiences
such as: playing instruments, theory games, videos, music appreciation,
written theory work, multicultural songs and attending musicals. They
continue their performances during the year and beginning at this grade
level they are able to participate in a yearly recital where they can
show off their talents.
- Continuing music theory with line and space notes
- Intervals that step, skip, leap and stay the same
- Music Machines
- Listening to a Composition
Physical Education
This course is intended to strengthen basic locomotive and non- locomotive
skills. The students will expand their understanding of cooperative game
activities and rules. Special attention will focus on development of muscle
strength and endurance
- Emphasis on special awareness
- Accuracy of movement
- Increased rhythm activities and balance
- Low organizational games
- Daily physical fitness exercises
- Elementary tumbling
- Throwing at targets, running mazes
- Rhythmic activities
- Balance activities.
Social Studies
The main focus areas of the second grade social studies program are the
family, the community, and map skills. Students become aware of their
roots and the surrounding environment. Working with charts and maps helps
students develop a more sophisticated understanding of directions and
their location in space and time. Second graders construct models of both
their neighborhood and our city from reusable and recyclable materials
such as cereal boxes, juice and milk cartons, and strawberry baskets.
We use Silver Burdett Ginn's Our Community as a textbook to support the
social studies curriculum at this grade level. On field trips students
visit the Los Angeles City Hall, a court house to witness a mock trial,
the MTA Headquarters, Union Station, and other Metro stations via the
Blue Line and the Red Line. Some additional social studies skills developed
by second graders are to:
- Use street maps to find places; use map tools such as the compass rose and map key
- Develop awareness of family roots by constructing a family tree
- Explain U.S. governmental institutions and practices, such as how laws are made
- Participate in recycling projects and activities relating to the community
- Understand how heroes from long ago have made a difference in lives of others
- Discover the workings of their community by participating in field trips
Science
In second grade, the main goal for science is to encourage students to
develop skills in observation, description, and investigation. Second
graders also learn to make inferences about weather and the water cycle,
the interactions of living things, and the existence of animals that lived
in the past. They learn about the food pyramid and nutrition; hygiene;
reproduction and life cycles; the different states of matter; light and
color; plants; issues of conservation and environmental protection and
how they relate to our daily lives. We use Houghton Mifflin's Discovery
Works, which adheres to national science standards, as the curriculum
for our second grade science program, and try to provide as many hands-on
experiences as possible for students. Children participate in a workshop
on the different body parts in our study of the human body. Hands-on projects
and enrichment activities include going to a pizzeria to observe practical
applications of the four food groups; constructing an aquarium; constructing
a rain gauge; visiting the California Science Center for the showing of
the Body Works (Tess); visiting the Aquarium of the Pacific to observe
aquatic animals and sea life. Parents who are health providers are encouraged
to share relevant information with students in connection with the human
body unit. Grandparents are invited to interact with their grandchildren
in creating clay models of dinosaurs in their environment. This science
unit is also integrated with art when students paint their own T-shirts
with dinosaurs. In science, second graders:
- Discover that the human body is made up of different organs and parts that work together
- Explore what constitutes matter; recognize that matter can change states
- Make predictions, charts, and graphs of weather statistics
- Participate in recycling projects to develop understanding of conservation of natural resources
- Identify and classify dinosaurs, developing a time line to learn about extinction and fossils
- Undertake an in-depth study of plants including their identification, classification, germination and development
- Identify, classify , and describe characteristics of various aquatic animals and plants.
Spanish
At this level students develop a basic vocabulary which includes names
of the members in a family, colors, numbers one through twenty, basic
foods, days of the week, months of the year, the alphabet, clothing and
basic greetings. Manipulatives and basic visual aids are used such as:
puppets, dolls with clothes, flash cards, posters, songs and a workbook
to reinforce vocabulary.
- Members of the family
- General foods
- Colors and numbers
- The alphabet
- Basic greetings
