What to expect in Second Grade

Second grade is a wonderful year to review, as well as polish those important skills needed to move into third grade. Second grade teachers’ goals are to encourage each student to do his or her best in all things.

Chapel is once a week. Enrichment classes with specialized teachers include Spanish and music twice a week. Students visit the library and participate in computer class once a week. Students also have art class every week and go to P.E. daily.

Students will study English using the Writer’s Workshop. This program takes students all the way from fundamental grammar through the construction of paragraphs. The students work on creative writing regularly.

Students are using the Sadlier Vocabulary Workshop which reflects the most current, research-based approaches to the instruction of vocabulary development. The students are given opportunities for reading and writing to incorporate into new vocabulary.

Students may delve into the following novel sets: Magic Tree House series, A to Z Mysteries and books by Beverly Cleary.

Students’ will learn and practice cursive writing skills using the Zaner-Bloser method.

Students will practice all the skills in the Saxon Math Program Grade 3. Concepts include the reinforcement of addition and subtraction skills with regrouping and then applying those skills to counting and money-related problem solving. Multiplication is presented at the conceptual level. Fractions are explored, telling time is refined to 1-minute intervals and geometrical themes are investigated. 

Students will learn to love Science with in-depth units covering: life science—plants, animals, fossils; physical science—matter, sound, heat magnets; the earth and solar system; and the human body. Students will all participate in the Science Fair.

In Social studies we use the Harcourt Social Studies book.  Areas of study include: communities, our working world, discovering our past and celebrating our country. This encompasses the study of citizenship among the many cultures that have inhabited North America.

Students celebrate Christmas around the world with research projects.

Our out-of-class experiences will be out-of-this-world, with visits to The Farm & Ranch Museum in Las Cruces and any other exhibit that fits into our curriculum.