Welcome to Second Grade

The second grade team consists of eight teachers: Melissa Batchelor, Jeff Carrus, Katherine Coll, Callie Day, Kara Penquite, Elizabeth Tanner, and Alicia Young. Each member is an integral part of the team. We each share our experiences and ideas which aid in developing lessons and activities that correlate with the second grade curriculum.
A second grade student has an exciting year of learning ahead. Reading is an important part of second grade. Students learn a range of comprehension skills including the use of his/her background knowledge (or schema), making connections, visualizing, predicting and inferring, as well as, asking questions. We hope that by the end of the year students truly understand that “Reading is Thinking” not just being able to say the words on the page. These skills are put to practice as students read a variety of texts including fiction, realistic fiction, fantasy, folk tales, and expository texts. Language consists of skills in the areas of grammar, punctuation, composition, spelling, listening, speaking, and handwriting. The science curriculum includes hands-on kits focusing on weather and organisms. Other topics studied in science include Earth/Moon/Sun, light and color, sound, forces and motion and so much more. Social Studies focuses on the community and how it compares to the state and nation. We will discuss an individual’s importance to community, rules and laws, holidays, celebrations, landforms, map skills, and state and national symbols and landmarks. In addition to this, students will learn about the contributions of several prominent Americans in history and how each affected the nation and our lives today. Basic addition and subtraction are the building blocks of second grade mathematics. During the year, students are expected to master the use of problem solving strategies, money and time skills, and addition and subtraction with regrouping. We will also briefly introduce multiplication and division as a stepping stone into the 3rd grade. Throughout the year students are assessed both formally and informally. The formal district assessments include reading (DRA), phonological awareness (PAPI), and writing benchmarks.
 

We encourage each student to read nightly. Students are given homework Monday through Thursday. Parent/teacher communication is an important part of each student’s success. Conferences are available upon request to address concerns, update on student progress, and answer questions.