2nd Grade Curriculum Overview

Language Arts

Reading

Text: Treasures. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2011; Leveled Readers; Novels

Primary Units: Fluency; Comprehension; Genres; Phonics; Vocabulary

Skills taught: Reading strategies – decoding/phonics; word bits; parts; self-correcting
Comprehension strategies – predicting; context clues; visualization; sequencing; synthesizing inference;rereading; story mapping; non-fiction reading/writing

Skills – Cause effect; details homophones; synonyms; antonyms; following directions; time lines abc order; fantasy; poetry; prefixes; suffixes.

Teaching methods and resources used: Promethean Interactive Boards, iPads/Chromebooks, Leveled Readers (F-P); shared reading; shared writing; shared literature; read alouds; teacher read alouds; word wall activities; guided Reading groups; Book Clubs; literacy centers; choral reading; phonics series; oral language presentations; DEAR time; books on tape/CD; reading response notebooks ; STAR Reading Assessment; novels; poetry; newspapaer/magazine articles; music; storytelling

Grammar

Text: Treasures. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2011

Primary Units: ABC order; action verbs; adding ed; adjectives; antonyms; book reports; centers; commas; comparing adjectives; compound words; editing marks; following directions; friendly letter; helping verbs; homophones; how-to sentences; interactive writing; listening; main idea; months of the year; naming parts of a sentence; nouns; parts of a story; poetry; punctuation; quotation marks; retelling; sentences; subject and predicate; synonyms/antonyms; thank you notes; troublesome words; verbs; writing a complete sentence; writing paragraphs; word wall

Spelling

Text: Treasures. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2011 and Phonetic Connections Benchmark Education Company 2011

Primary Units: Short vowels; long vowels; consonant digraphs; consonant clusters; words with silent consonants; words with /j/, ist, /kl/ and /kw/; plurals with es; contractions; words that end in –s, -es and -ies

Skills taught: Looking for patterns; word bits or parts; base or root words; alphabetical order

Teaching methods and resources used: Alphabet letters; word wall; computers; dictionaries; pocket chart; and computers

Math

Text: Saxon Mathematics

New concepts are developed through hands-on activities that engage students in the learning process. Concepts are introduced, reviewed and practiced over time. Students move from the concrete to the pictorial to the abstract.

Saxon capitalizes on daily mixed practice, frequent assessments, daily homework assignments and opportunities for students to make concrete connections to everyday life.

Social Studies

Text: People We Know Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. 2009

Primary Units: Living in a Community; Our Government; Looking at the Earth; Learn about People; Past and Present; People at Work

Skills Taught: map keys; directions; continents; oceans; goods; services; needs; wants; voyage of Columbus; cities; suburbs and country; landforms; celebrations of other cultures; American symbols; black history, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks; women’s history; biographical information; chart and graph skills; citizenship skills; map and globe skills

Teaching methods and resources used: Promethean Interactive Boards, iPads/Chromebooks, Make gloves; use clay to form landforms; field trips to places in the community; maps; globe; peer tutoring; public library and school library books; video tapes; guest speakers; songs; non-fiction books and magazines

Science

Text: MacMillan McGraw Hill Science 2005

Primary Units: Life Science: Plants and Animals; Life Science: Homes for Plants and Animals; Earth Science: Changes on Earth; Earth Science: The Sun and Its Family; Physical Science: Matter and Energy; Physical Science: Watch It Move

Skills taught: Parts of a plant; how seeds are scattered; magnet poles; attract and repel; food chain; evaporation; food pyramid; habitats; conservation; rocks and minerals; fossils; sun, moon and earth; day and night; seasons; earth and moon movement; force and motion; sound; volume; pitch; light and heat; senses; caring for your teeth; how your body uses food; why you need water; a healthful diet.

Teaching methods and resources used: experiments; manipulatives; videos; science book; worksheets that reinforce topics and skills.

Religion

Text: Be My Disciples RCL Benziger: 2014.