Second Grade

Religion

Lessons from our textbook, Spirit of Truth: Our Life in Jesus (Sophia Institute Press, 2017), help prepare children for their first celebration of the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Throughout this year, your child will learn about God’s love and mercy, especially His ultimate mercy in sending our Savior, Jesus, and how the life and teachings of Jesus show us a clear path to holiness and Heaven. It is expected that children memorize the prayers that are a part of Mass and daily life. The Jesus our Life (Ignatius Press, 2013) textbook is a supplement for your use in preparing your child for first reception of the sacraments.

Mathematics

We utilize the Go Math! series (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015) to teach mathematics, supplemented with Simple Solutions (Bright Ideas Press, 2014) to establish a regular cycle of material review and practice, which helps students refine and strengthen mental connections between mathematical concepts.

The content of study at this grade level focuses on:

• Operations and algebraic thinking,
• Number and operations in base ten,
• Measurement and data, and
• Geometry.

Diocesan mathematics standards also specify critical content for instructional emphasis in the areas of: Extending base ten notation, building fluency with addition and subtraction, using standard units of measure, telling time, counting money, and describing and analyzing shapes. 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 from concrete to abstract thinking.

Language Arts

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. A 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. Writing instruction focuses on traits that define strong writing, including conventions, organization, ideas, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, and presentation. Leveled reading resources come from the Flying Start To Literacy program (Okapi Educational Publishing), which provides paired fiction and nonfiction titles in a planned unit. Spelling and word work follows the strategies of Words Their Way (Pearson, 2015.) Our grammar and writing work is supplemented with exercises from Voyages in English (Loyola Press, 2018.)

Reading topics:

• Read and study a variety of genres.
• Utilize reading 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.
• Independently select books appropriate to reading level.
• Read books for own purpose.
• Read with increasing fluency.

Phonemic Awareness topics:

• Uses phonics to decode new words in age-appropriate material.
• Blends sounds to make words.
• Understand parts of speech.
• Recognizing high frequency sight words.

Writing topics:

• Practice the writing process: pre-write, draft, conference, edits, publish, and share
• Narrative, opinion/persuasive, informational/expository, descriptive, research reports, creative /stories, journaling, fables, biographies, and poetry writing.
• Write paragraphs: main idea, supporting detail sentences, and concluding sentences.
• Conventions: complete sentences, capitals, and punctuation.

Science

Throughout the second grade school year, students study the following areas of science:

• Life science-ecosystems,
• Earth science-how the earth was formed, and
• Physical science-materials and their properties.

We experience the beauty of science by building models, observing experiments, and understanding the different properties found in God's universe. Textbook and online resources entitled Inspire Science (McGraw Hill, 2017) are used.

Social Studies

Social studies in second grade leads students 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.