Second Grade

Second grade enrichment units give students the opportunity to explore challenging pieces of literature and science topics in a way that allows them to deepen their critical thinking and questioning skills. Shakespeare Enrichment Unit: Second grade students engage in a form of literacy exploration known as Socratic Seminar as they explore several works by William Shakespeare. The object of Socratic Seminar is to develop a deeper understanding of the ideas, values, problems, issues, and themes inherent in writing, as well as to increase student thinking and reasoning ability. Socratic Seminar consists of conversations moderated by the teacher in which a carefully constructed open-ended question, about which there should be an element of doubt, is posed. The resultant discussion encourages students to listen closely to the comments of others while thinking critically about their own responses. Socratic Seminar encourages students to work cooperatively and to question intelligently and respectfully.                     Scenes From "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Second Grade Puppet Show     Simple Machines Enrichment Unit: Simple machines make our lives easier by allowing us to use less energy and force to do work. Second grade students explore the uses of these machines, build and test the machines, and use the design process to reflect on their experiments and make improvements.   Students also use inquiry based learning and questioning to understand how simple machines can make our work easier, the function of the six types of simple machines, and the relationship between forces and simple machines. Students engage in hands-on experiments to explore the interaction of simple machines and forces such as gravity and friction.