Welcome to the second grade at Evergreen Elementary! Your child has already undergone an extensive growth process during the kindergarten and first grade years. In most cases, they have started reading and writing independently, studied hundreds of sight words essential to grasping the language arts, mastered basic addition and subtraction skills, and begun to study the world around them in the social and physical sciences. In second grade, our team of dedicated teachers will further expand your child’s knowledge in these core areas of elementary education.

Our second-grade curriculum employs the use of the balanced literacy method, presenting reading, writing, and word study in focused weekly themes. This method promotes the student’s interaction with a variety of literature at multiple times throughout the day.

Reading instruction is broken down into guided and shared reading. During guided reading, students are exposed to material hand-picked for their individual reading level. They receive instruction in small groups of children who are working on similar skills. Students also develop engagement and independence as they work at classroom centers geared to encourage response and reflection.

During shared reading instruction, students are brought together whole group for additional literature studies in both fiction and non-fiction. At the second grade level, we teach a multitude of reading strategies to further develop reading comprehension beyond basic fluency. Partner, mixed-group, and whole-group discussion and activities offer further practice to our developing readers.

Students will have the opportunity to practice a wide assortment of writing skills within second grade. Basic grammar instruction is continued, with a focus on sentence structure, parts of speech, capitalization, and punctuation. A significant emphasis is placed upon developing each student as an author as we explore the creation of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction selections.

In Chesterfield County, we present word study instruction using the Words Their Way method. This instructional model teaches students to identify spelling patterns within the English language as a means to grasp the spelling of individual words. Rather than memorize a list of words each week, your student will compare and contrast patterns within their word list as they complete individual assignments. Like guided reading, this instructional time allows students with similar skill levels to work together, receiving differentiated instruction tailored to their needs.

As with our language arts curriculum, mathematics instruction is presented using a wide variety of methodology and activities. Math talks, teacher and peer modeling, center exploration, math journaling, and the substantial use of hands-on manipulatives and math literature all provide an exciting and diverse approach to the study of math. An increased emphasis is placed upon problem solving in both oral and written forms. Although number sense continues to be a major focus, other topics that your student will encounter include graphing, number relationships, addition and subtraction, place value, money, time, calendar, measurement, geometry, and fractions.

The physical and social sciences are taught in alternating bi- or tri-weekly topics. A concerted effort is made to pull all other instruction into this area, immersing the students in thematic explorations complete with literature, writing, technology, arts, and real-world experiences. Laboratory and field trip opportunities are focused on complementing our specific areas of study.

Second-grade science topics include water, weather, magnets, matter, fossils, plant and animal life cycles, environments, weathering and erosion, resources, and the scientific process. Our subject matter within the social studies includes investigations of citizenship, communities, map skills, Native Americans, Famous Americans, Ancient China, Ancient Egypt, and economics.

These areas of our curriculum allow students to further practice and develop study skills, as prepared study guides are provided for home use in preparation for assessments.