Welcome to Second Grade!

For many kids, second grade marks the beginning of being one of the "big kids" in the primary grades (TK-2).  Routines like working independently, cooperating with others in a group, sitting quietly, listening to teacher's instructions and classmates' ideas, or reading on their own, should be familiar.  

 Second graders have grown used to their school environment and are ready to take on some serious learning.  Your child's attention span is increasing.  This means they are able to learn more difficult concepts in one setting and apply them to other situations. 

What Second Graders LEARN:

Reading

Second grade is a pivotal year in reading.  This is the year when students are challenged to become more fluent readers.  They will move beyond using decoding skills to figure out unfamiliar words and use context clues.

ASK your child to retell the stories read to practice summarizing accurately.  Opportunities to talk and write in response to texts helps readers grow.  By the end of the year, your child will have a strong grasp of suffixes and prefixes, using them to decipher the meaning of words they don't know by using context clues.

Other skills include prediction, using text features, differences between fiction and nonfiction, author's purpose, self-correction, and expression.

Studies show that student readers grow MOST when they have ENORMOUS amounts of time (90 minutes a day) of actual reading.  It is crucial in 2nd grade that students gain reading fluency, strategies and skills, and comprehension.  Become a better reader by reading aloud everyday. "Eyes on print, mind on story."

EVERYDAY - read to your child, read with your child, or read by your child.

• English Language Arts: SPEAKING and LISTENING  https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/SL/2/

• English Language Arts/Reading: FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/2/

• English Language Arts/Reading: LITERATURE  https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RL/2/

• English Language Arts/Reading: INFORMATIONAL TEXT https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RI/2/

Writing

By the end of first grade, your child should have mastered the ability to write a coherent sentence to convey meaning.  In second grade, students will work to put a number of different types of sentences (statements, questions, and commands) together to create a descriptive piece of writing.

The phrase most often heard this year is "Tell me more about that." This helps 2nd graders to develop and use a more extensive vocabulary of verbs and learn how to use adjectives to bring depth to pieces of writing. 

Your child will learn to write three writing genres - Narrative, Informative, and Opinion. Students will learn to think of an idea, plan (brainstorm), draft, revise, edit, use word lists, writing checklists, and other resources to help improve their writing.

• English Language Arts: WRITING https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/W/2/

• English Language Arts: LANGUAGE https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/L/2/

Math

Second graders will continue to explore the logic of numbers.  They will also start to learn that all the number facts are related in a systematic way.  Second grade begins to work with those numbers in real-world applications, problem solving, and comparison problems.

Students will delve further into place value, learning to add up to 3-digit numbers and subtract 3-digit numbers, using regrouping/ungrouping.  They will be taught include basic money sense and counting, telling time, units of measure and how those units relate to each other (inches make feet, feet make yards, etc.).

They will explore basic fractions to learn how they relate to a whole and practice "skip counting" as a precursor to learning multiplication tables.

• Operations and Algebraic Thinking

• Number and Operations in Base Ten

• Measurement and Data

• Geometry

Math: https://www.education.com/common-core/second-grade/math/

Science

• Ecosystems/Habitats

• Plant Life/Plant Cycle

• Life Cycles

• Animals - Mammals, Repetiles, Fish, Birds, Amphibians

• Earth/Landforms

Science/NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards for California Public Schools): https://www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ca/sc/documents/cangssgr2-dci.pdf

Social Studies

• People Who Make a Difference, Heroes, Inventors

• Life long ago and today

• Map Skills

• Governmental Institutions and Practices

• Basic Economic Concepts

Social Studies: https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf

(https://www.verywellfamily.com/what-do-kids-learn-in-2nd-grade-620991)