2nd grade is the last year of what is traditionally known as the early elementary grades or the primary grades.

In 2nd grade, students continue to build on a repertoire of reading and writing strategies.  This is the year where many students move from books with pictures to books with chapters.  Students begin to engage in conversations with peers and with teachers about “Just Right” texts and apply strategies to their reading such as predicting, questioning, and inferring.  2nd grade readers will study authors like Cynthia Rylant, series like Pinky & Rex and Cam Jansen, characters through trickster tales and book clubs, and science and social studies content like weather and maps through informational texts.

The 2nd grade writing curriculum is aligned with the reading curriculum so that when students are reading trickster tales, they will write their own trickster tales.  When students are studying a specific topic in social studies or science, they will be writing an informational report on the same topic.  Students will also be encouraged to express their opinions of their reading through their writing of book reviews and recommendations.

The math curriculum in 2nd grade focuses on four critical areas as defined by the Common Core Standards: understanding of base-ten notation; building fluency with addition and subtraction; using standard units of measure; and describing and analyzing shapes.  Students build strong conceptual understanding in these areas by problem solving, practicing their facts, and working with manipulative to represent the concepts.