Second Grade
Curriculum
In 2nd Grade, our students dive headfirst into works of the greats, from the masters of art and literature, to the giants of Western Civilization. In literature class, students are constantly exposed to examples of quality writing, and encouraged to broaden their moral imagination, as well as to strengthen their reading skills. Writing in the 2nd grade focuses on learning the structure of paragraphs, and in math, students are taught to solve up to four-step problems by consistently applying a logical approach to finding the answers. Geography is integrated with the history curriculum. They begin to learn more as they explore the locations mentioned in their history classes. In the 2nd Grade, classroom experiments are conducted, using the scientific method as a guide, so that they can gain experience with studying the world around them in a style that honors academic integrity and rigor.
Our second grade curriculum includes:
Theology
- Awareness of God’s deep love for self, and all people
- Acknowledge that God created the world and all that is in it
- Understand Jesus, and that He died for the sins of all people
- Learn and recite catechism selections and Bible verses on a weekly basis
- Recite various historical creeds of the Christian faith
- Retell Bible stories
- Attend and demonstrate reverence in weekly Chapel services
- Demonstrate curiosity for spiritual matters, and how God works in time
Social/Emotional
- Demonstrate God’s love when interacting with all ages and types of people
- Cheerfully respect school rules and procedures
- Respect and cooperate with both students and faculty
- Demonstrate regard for others through politeness and courtesy
- Treat friends as the student would like to be treated
- Demonstrate increasing levels of independence and confidence
- Demonstrate increasing levels of impulse control and self-discipline
- Take responsibility for the student’s own actions
Reading/Writing/Grammar/Spelling
- Cultivate a love for reading,and for stories, by interest in books with increasing difficulty
- Demonstrate use of moral imagination while reading
- Apply adequate use of phonetic fundamentals to decode words
- Demonstrate improved fluency through speed, accuracy and fluidity
- Apply satisfactory number of new vocabulary words to written and oral work
- Gain understanding of new words through dictionary and contextual clues
- Comprehend the literal and inferential meanings in literature
- Recall plot, characters, and meanings of books read in class
- Recognize and identify story types
- Show where to find the following parts of a book: title, publisher, content page, etc.
- Understand that God created language purposefully, and that words belong to Him
- Demonstrate an appreciation for clear communication, both written and spoken
- Identify and demonstrate a consistent and proper use of the parts of speech
- Demonstrate understanding of verb tenses in written and oral form
- Consistently practice correct subject/verb agreement in sentences
- Consistently practice correct punctuation and capitalization
- Consistently apply learned spelling rules and integrate with all subject areas
- Write neatly and precisely
- Understand the parts of a book and their purpose
Second Grade Reading List:
*Note: Due to the nature of the reading groups, not all children read the same books.
Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White
Stuart Little, by E.B. White
Runaway Ralph, by Beverly Clearly
Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Richard and Florence Atwater
Winnie-The-Pooh, by A.A. Milne
Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink
Little House on the Prarie series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Sign of the Beaver, by Elizabeth George Speare
The Cricket in Times Square, by George Seldon
The Borrowers, by Mary Norton
Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit
The Railway Children, by E. Nesbit
The series: Childhood of Famous Americans, by various authors
Mathematics
- Understand that God crated numerical system as reflection of His nature
- Promptly, with at least 75% accuracy, mentally solve math problems using +, -, x, and 0-12
- Accurately memorize and quiz multiplication tables from 0-12
- Solve division problems, from simple to complex
- Apply learned concepts to story problems involving 3-4 steps
- Use math skills to recognize and use money correctly
- Correctly tell time to the minute, and temperature to the degree
- Comprehend and decode simple graphs and scales
- Integrate math skills to other subject areas
Science
- Demonstrate curiosity towards the world and how it works
- Understand the scientific process
- Conduct experiments based on thoughtful questions
- Learn the basics of air, gravity, magnets, light and space
- Learn the basics of water, earth and the world’s construction
- Learn the basics of weather and weather patterns
History/Geography
- Learn geographic relationships by placing countries in context with each other
- Explore foreign countries as they relate to historic lessons
- Explain basic cause and effect relationships
- Demonstrate curiosity about the past
- Know and state the reasons given for importance of significant dates or events
- Develop familiarity with world history through stories of major historical events and figures
Music
- Participate in two-part singing
- Recognize and perform a complete scale
- Explore works of the masters and important Church musicians
- Identify music staff, notes, clef and time signature
- Memorize books of Bible through song
- Integrate visual and musical art in classroom projects
- Expand knowledge of beat and rhythm (long vs. short note)
Art
- Describe and imitate the beauty found in God’s creation
- Recognize connections between the art and the message it conveys
- Admire and appreciate famous pieces of art and work of the Masters
- Correctly hold, use, clean and store all materials and tools
- Demonstrate perspective and space in drawing
- Use basic geometric shapes to recreate real objects on paper
- Make use of shading and color depth
