2nd grade Curriculum

English/Language Arts (ELA)

Fundations- Mrs. Arpert our Fundations teacher will come in once a day for approximately 40 minutes to work on phonics skills with the class. During this time, I will also work with students individually or in groups on their particular phonics skill.

Journey's - During Journey's we read a new story (fiction and non fiction) every 7 days. With each story comes a different set of skills. For example, for our first story "Henry and Mudge" we have a new set of spelling words (short a and i words), vocabulary words, grammar skill (Subject and predicate), vocabulary skill (abc order), and comprehension skill (sequence of events).

Action 100- During Action 100 time, we dive deeper into a comprehension skill that coincides with our weekly story. For our first unit we will work on sequence of events and not only discuss it alongside our story Henry and Mudge, but the students will also practice this skill in their own leveled books. The main components of Action 100 are independent reading and one-on-one conferences with the teacher.

**More on Conferences: During conferences, I will first assess your child's reading level and then work on individualized skills to improve and enrich your child's reading. We work on trick words as well as words with a spelling pattern that your child may struggle with. I will give a list of POWER WORDS each conference. These words are the words that YOUR child needs to practice every night! Every conference I will check to see if the power words were learned!

Math

EnVisions & Guided Math- This year I will be integrated our math program, EnVisions with "Guided Math", which is a more individualized, small group centered way to learn the 2nd grade math skills. During our math block the students will be doing the following activities daily: word problems in their math journals, fact fluency (on the computer, using Hot Dots, fact fluency pages, flash cards, etc...), math stations to practice and master previously learned skills, working in a small group with the teacher to learn and practice new skills, working independently to practice learned skills, or working in their math notebooks to complete a project.

The reason I'm integrating Guided Math this year is to really meet your child's individual math needs. For example, if we're working on place value up to the thousands place and your child masters this skill within a day or two, we'll try the ten thousands place or even the hundred thousands place. On the other hand, if your child is struggling, I'll meet him or her at their level and we'll work on more basic skills until they can work their way up. Using guided math, no one is bored and practicing skills they've already mastered completely and no one is LOST and falling behind.

Some of the more time-consuming math topics in 2nd grade include: place value up to the thousands (or more depending on skill level), addition and subtraction with regrouping, time, and money. By the end of 2nd grade I also try to introduce multiplication (and maybe even division for the high flyers!!).

Social Studies

Social Studies is a fun time of day where we talk about community, US geography and maps, government, voting, and holidays! We do a lot of projects, crafts, songs, and fun group work during our social studies time. We learn how to use a compass and read maps, learn and act out how our government operates, learn about the election process and even hold our own classroom election day!