2nd Grade Curriculum Page

Religion – We are using the “One in Christ”-Concordia curriculum. There are nine units in this course (approximately one per month with additional stories supplemented). The Bible stories in each unit are connected by a common theme. All stories and units are presented in chronological order to survey God’s story of love and salvation for His people as found in the Old and New Testaments and continuing on to touch our lives today. The Second grade material of the “One in Christ” curriculum is designed primarily to help students grow in discipleship as they study God’s Word and apply the Bible truths to their lives. 

Memory Verses – Will be sent home every two months. Two Bible verses a week are expected to be memorized and recited. Each verse will be introduced at the beginning of each lesson and reviewed in class each day. Verses will be recited on Wednesdays and Fridays unless otherwise noted.

Chapel – Is held every Wednesday at 9:15am and all are welcome.

ELA (English Language Arts) – The main goal of our E.L.A program is for all children to see themselves as effective communicators who can develop independent reading and writing skills.

Second Grade ELA is administered during an 80 minute block.  The curriculum is aligned with the Common Core Standards. The components of our Literacy program include Decodable Stories, 2nd Grade Leveled Books and beyond, Read Alouds, Sight Words, Guided Reading, Silent Sustained Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar, Phonics and Vocabulary.   The educational approach of “Balanced Literacy” is used as the Common Core Standards are addressed. Independent, guided, shared and modeled methods are used to develop the student’s reading and writing skills.

We use the Journeys Common Core curriculum along with supplemental books throughout the year for specific themes. Daily reading logs are tracked for independent reading with parents as partners. Students are introduced to a range of children’s literature from a variety of genres such as short stories, folk tales, fairy tales, poems and informational texts, balancing fiction and nonfiction. Children are asked to make connections to their reading.

Writing is based on the Six Traits of Writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, fluency, conventions and presentation.  The Six Traits of Writing help the children to better organize their thoughts while trying to convey their message in a more clear and creative way. 

Formal and informal assessments are used to gauge student’s progress. The need to make connections between and across subject areas is emphasized. This allows students to understand the importance of proper writing, grammar and spelling.  Throughout the year students will be publishing samples of their writings.

A highlight in our ELA program includes our Book-It Program. The national Book-It program encourages students to read for a designated amount of time each month. At the end of the month, the teacher reviews each student’s reading logs to see if they read for the goal of 15-20 minutes each day. The student is then presented with a certificate to Pizza Hut good for a Personal Pan Pizza. This program runs from October through March. 

Math – The major topics of the Second grade curriculum are Understanding Addition and Subtraction, Addition Strategies, Subtraction Strategies, Working with Equal Groups, Place Value to 100, Mental addition, Mental Subtraction, Adding Two-Digit Numbers, Subtracting Two-Digit Numbers, Place Value to 1,000, Three-Digit Addition and Subtraction, Money, Measuring Length, Time, Graphs, and Data, and Geometry. Keep in mind that not all of the new skills presented are expected to be mastered, but will be introduced over and over again for continued exposure. The students learn through games, manipulative and practical application to their everyday lives. www.ixl.com is one of the programs that we use to review and reinforce the concepts being taught. Additionally, homework may be assigned and sent home if the topic taught in class needs additional reinforcement. Any class work that is not finished in class will be sent home to be completed and returned the next school day. Basic addition and subtraction skills to 12 are expected to be mastered upon entering Second Grade. If your child has not yet mastered their addition and subtraction skills, they will need additional practice at home. Holy Ghost uses www.xtramath.org  to improve the fluency of these skills.

Science – The Second Grade Science curriculum is built on three levels of inquiry about God’s wonderful and exciting world that we live in and explore. Led by the teacher, students will be engaged in activities that build a strong science foundation and help them develop a full understanding of the inquiry process. Students will 1). learn process skills and follow step-by-step instructions, 2). take more ownership of the inquiry process, and 3). take the lead in conducting experiments, all while the teacher directs, guides, and facilitates Full Inquiry. The 4 major units that will be covered during the year using the Scott Foresman textbook and supplemental materials are: Life Science (living and non-living, habitats, how plants and animals live, life cycles, food chains), Earth Science (land, water, and air, weather), Physical Science (observing matter, movement and sound, learning about energy), and Space and Technology (day and night sky, science in our world). Tasting Tuesday is a way to introduce the students to new foods, with students trying to guess what new food they will be tasting, by playing 20 Questions.

Social Studies –Our Social Studies curriculum focuses the students on gaining a great sense of community and knowledge about citizenship. Students will learn how to participate in our country’s democratic government. Throughout the course of study, our students will explore topics like- Governing the People, The World Around Us, Using Our Resources, People Long Ago, A World of Many People, and People in the Marketplace.

Students will engage in a variety of hands-on activities to reinforce the content knowledge from the textbook (Harcourt) and other sources. Examples include constructing a store to demonstrate their understanding of goods and services, drawing a picture of themselves in the four different seasons, and with the use of technology, researching supplemental units such as the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. We will also use Scholastic News as a weekly tool for learning about current events, with corresponding homework to reinforce understanding.

Handwriting – In Second Grade, we use the Zaner-Bloser method to reinforce proper penmanship. Students continue to build on the printing (manuscript) skills they learned in First Grade.  Students will practice size, shape, spacing, and slant of lowercase and uppercase letters, as well as numbers. We will also focus on legibility when they write. Second Grade will transition into Cursive Readiness in the second half of the school year. This is an introduction to the basic positions and strokes, which will continue into Third Grade. Students also write 2-3 times a week during Journal Response Time. This is an activity where students are given an idea or prompt to write about. The class brainstorms together ideas and thoughts to include in their writings and are modeled on the whiteboard.  Students are then asked to write 4-5 complete, descriptive sentences on topic. Upon completion, the teacher conferences with each student for corrections in spelling and sentence structure in order to polish these skills. The students then illustrate their written ideas, completing their authentic work with a picture. This process encourages students to become better communicators, using descriptive words and pictures to convey ideas.

Physical Education– Students study a variety of units in Physical Education.  These units are designed for students to develop gross motor skills, a respect for rules in game play, the ability to cooperate in a team dynamic, and a Christian attitude towards sportsmanship.