Reading continues to be a priority in second grade. Second-grade students will be immersed in a print-rich environment filled with fiction and nonfiction selections, which relate to all areas of the curriculum. Students will learn to use a combination of strategies when reading to enhance comprehension and will read age-appropriate sections with fluency, accuracy, and expression. Students will expand their vocabulary by listening and speaking in classroom discussions. Second graders will write stories, letters, and simple explanations; apply simple grammatical principals to writing; and locate information in reference materials. All aspects of literacy will be taught through a balanced literacy framework for instruction, enabling all students to become independent and strategic readers, writers, thinkers, and communicators.

The second-grade mathematics program focuses on building students’ own intuitive sense of numbers. Development of the size of numbers (magnitude), multiple ways of thinking about and representing numbers, strategies and words to compare numbers, and an understanding of simple operations on numbers will be emphasized. Experiences with estimating, measuring, patterning, graphing, and developing spatial sense are included. Problem solving is integrated throughout the curriculum.

The second-grade standards continue to focus on using a broad range of science skills in understanding the natural world. Making detailed observations, drawing conclusions, and recognizing unusual or unexpected data are stressed as skills needed for using and validating information. Measurement in both English and metric units is stressed. The idea of living systems in introduced through habitats and the interdependence of living and nonliving things. The concept of change is explored in phases of matter, life cycles, weather patterns and seasonal effects on plants and animals.

Students in the second grade will study American Indian (First Americans) groups by comparing and contrasting the lives and contributions of these groups. The students will study the lives of individuals from the past that have worked to improve the lives of other Americans. Second grade students continue to develop map and globe skills and to demonstrate enhanced understanding of basic economic concepts. Students will also learn about the responsibilities of good citizenship and how people from diverse backgrounds participate and contribute to their communities. The second grade students will develop an understanding of the elements of civilizations and their interrelationships by studying ancient China and Egypt. Students will study the contributions of two ancient civilizations and three American Indian groups, and apply concepts of geography, civics, and economics to their everyday life.