Students explore the concept of community and the role they play in their family, classroom, and school communities. Children demonstrate self-awareness and positive social identities. They learn about the members of their classroom community and their classmates’ families. Students investigate what makes a strong classroom team and learn about the interdependence of people within a community. This includes understanding diversity within the classroom and school community, awareness of the diverse skills and talents people bring to a community, and the similarities and differences between people in the community. Students develop an understanding that their classroom is stronger because each member brings something unique. They begin to explore positive ways that they can act when they see someone being treated unfairly or to make a change they envision for their immediate community.

Building on what they learned in Kindergarten, students develop a deeper understanding of community. Students learn that everyone is part of multiple, overlapping communities and people contribute to those communities in different ways. At the beginning of the year, students focus on understanding their personal and family communities. They learn that people have multiple aspects to their identities and that all their identities make up their whole selves. Through this study of identity students build a positive view of their self-identity and recognize that others have both similarities and differences in their identities. Students see that many different families make up our communities and that this diversity makes communities stronger. Students will learn how to display empathy, respect, and perspective-taking in order to launch our year-long exploration of communities with a more civically-minded and social justice-oriented stance.

Grade 2 builds on the work of Kindergarten and Grade 1 by focusing on the concepts of individual and group identity and culture, as well as the value of a multicultural and diverse community.