Second Grade

Second grade mathematicians engage in experiences that continue to develop number sense and build fluency and efficiency for addition and subtraction strategies. The facts they have already mastered become their starting point when reasoning about facts with which they are less fluent. Students discover that they can extend these strategies when computing and estimating sums and differences of multi-digit numbers as they solidify their understanding of place value in a base ten number system. Algorithms are introduced alongside various strategies and related to a conceptual understanding more so than a mastery of procedure. Through collaborative investigation, discourse, and hands-on experiences with manipulatives and various pictorial models, students develop as problem-solvers and work to employ flexible thinking and a variety of strategies. Ongoing experiences with standard units of measurement, data collection, graphing, telling time, and reasoning with elapsed time, as well as calculating values of sets of coins and making change, introduce students to multiplicative reasoning as they discover the efficiency in counting by groups. Studies of measurement and geometry also provide a contextual and concrete introduction to concepts of fractions.