2nd Grade

Religion:

The series, Christ Our Life helps prepare children for their first celebration of the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Throughout this year your child will learn many signs of God's loving care and practical ways to use his/ her talents to share God's love with others. The program leads the children to respond joyfully to God's call to give themselves in love to him and to others. It is expected that children memorize the prayers that are a part of Mass and daily life. As parents you will have an important role in building your child's faith as well. For the sacraments we also utilize the Jesus our Life textbook.

Social Studies:

The second grade Social Studies program of Scott Foresman guides children to discover: Where people live, our earth, how to work together in communities today, our country today, our country long ago, and people and places in history.

Math:

We utilize the Math Connects series by MacMillian and McGraw-Hill to teach mathematics. The content of study at this grade level focuses on problem solving, money, time, measurement, fractions, and computation. A high importance is placed on true mathematical understanding. Expected is the student's ability to not only calculate the answer, but to explain the answer and how to apply the calculation. The children are supplied with a wide variety of hands on manipulatives to support their learning, allowing them to move form concrete to abstract thinking.

Science:

The Houghton Mifflin Reading Series is the springboard for reading instruction within classrooms. All students receive instruction in a variety of settings which can include direct instruction, small group instruction, center activities, silent reading, and lessons incorporating various uses of technology. Student's reading and writing skills are assessed throughout the year so that instruction can be differentiated to meet their needs. Reading comprehension skills and strategies listed below are practiced across all curricular areas. Houghton Mifflin is also used to teach and assess writing. This model focuses on traits that define strong writing, including conventions, organization, ideas, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, and presentation.

Language Arts:

The Houghton Mifflin Reading Series is the springboard for reading instruction within classrooms. All students receive instruction in a variety of settings which can include direct instruction, small group instruction, center activities, silent reading, and lessons incorporating various uses of technology. Student's reading and writing skills are assessed throughout the year so that instruction can be differentiated to meet their needs. Reading comprehension skills and strategies listed below are practiced across all curricular areas. Houghton Mifflin is also used to teach and assess writing. This model focuses on traits that define strong writing, includ?ing conventions, organization, ideas, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, and presentation.

Reading:

Below are the topics studied as part of the Reading curriculum:

Read and study a variety of genres

Utilize the Houghton Mifflin strategies: predicting, summarizing, questioning, connecting, clarifying, and evaluating

Use phonics, meaning, and sentence structures to read and comprehend

Use a variety of resources (dictionaries, glossaries, computer resources, previous experiences) to determine and clarify meanings of unfamiliar words

Organize what is learned from reading

Below are the concepts covered in the Phonemic Awareness portion of our curriculum:

Blends sounds to make words

Fluency

Selects books appropriate to reading level

Writing

Story, report, letter, journal writing, and poetry

Practice the writing process: pre-write, draft, conference, edit, publish, and share

Understand parts of speech

Phonemic Awareness:

Below are the topics studied as part of the Phonemic Awareness curriculum:

Uses phonics to decode new words in age appropriate material

Blends sounds to make words

Recognizes high frequency sight words

Fluency

Read with increasing fluency

Selects books appropriate to reading level

Independently select and read books for own purpose

Writing

Expository, Persuasive and Narrative writing

Story, report, letter, journal writing, and poetry

Write paragraphs: main idea, supporting detail sentences, and concluding sentence

Practice the writing process: pre-write, draft, conference, edit, publish, and share

Conventions: complete sentences, capitals, and punctuation

Understand parts of speech
Scott Foresman D'Nealian Handwriting, introduce cursive writing