Second Grade

Second grade students continue to refine their skills of observation, exploration, questioning, and investigation. Students utilize these skills in the unit “Balance and Motion,” observing and exploring those concepts using various objects. These explorations lead to student questions that are then investigated as a class. Other second grade science topics have included a soil study, water cycle study, changes in matter, and various animal studies.

Social Studies

Second graders start the year exploring their larger community and the State of Delaware. Students learn about the geography, history, and culture of the First State and explore state symbols and landmarks. In this unit, students also develop their map skills, learning to use a basic political map, an eight-point compass, and a map key. Second graders then continue to develop their understanding of the world through the theme of “Ideas.” First, they explore inventors and how they come up with ideas to create new and innovative creations. Students discover where ideas come from, how ideas are supported, and the ways in which ideas can change the world. Students independently research a larger “Wondering” of their own and create posters with their findings to present to classmates. Second graders also read biographies to learn about people who have made contributions to the world as a whole, and about how ideas, innovations, and human choices impact communities. Each student researches an influential person and writes a biographical speech, which is presented to visitors including parents, students and teachers from other classes, and school administrators at the annual Second Grade Wax Museum.

Spanish

Second graders continue to develop their Spanish by learning and using more extensive vocabulary. As their vocabulary increases, they engage in conversation to express and exchange feelings and personal information with their teacher and peers. They practice using familiar phrases through repeated class activities, such as short dialogs, songs, and cooperative group games. Students learn about Hispanic holidays and celebrations, with a focus on Puerto Rico.

Computer Science

In the second grade curriculum, students begin working through challenges using Logo programming. These challenges require students to look for repeating units within structures and decide how to program them most efficiently. Other programming challenges apply math concepts. Students also are introduced to a graphical programming environment called Blockly that they use to program a suite of Wonder Robots.

Performing Arts

Continuing the sequential study of the fundamentals of music, the rhythmic and melodic material gradually increases in complexity. Second graders are introduced to more involved exercises, and are required to master more challenging listening, instrument-playing, reading, and writing skills. Students learn both aural and visual recognition of repeated, similar, and different phrases in music, and begin to label them as A, B, and C to derive form. They practice recognition of material from notation (without hearing it), and compose and write notation for short songs and rhymes. Second graders continue to expand their musical vocabulary to include terms such as timbre, crescendo, and decrescendo.

Physical Education

Second graders participate in games with three or more rules, with a continued emphasis on fair play and safety issues related to movement. They integrate foundation skills with basic sport skills in simple lead-up games and cooperative activities.

Visual Arts

The second grade curriculum continues with concept-oriented projects which last for consecutive classes. The topics and themes continue to connect visual arts with student interests, their environment, and other disciplines. Works are created using a variety of visual arts concepts, tools, and techniques including drawing, painting, rubbing, printing, and sculpting. These students explore various elements of design in more depth introduced the previous year. Color, texture, shape and form are revisited in each assignment. During open studio sessions, students collaborate, work independently, generate and investigate personal ideas, and turn ideas into works of art. Using tools appropriately and with care, repurposing and fabricating forms needed for creations are also recurring themes. Students are encouraged to talk about their work, respond to the works of others and document each project in their ongoing journals. Throughout the year they will produce works for and curate several group displays.

Library Media Center/Information Literacy

With assistance but evolving independence, second grade students continue to locate their own books on the library shelves. Gradually, they learn to pick a book that not only interests them but also is appropriate in reading level and size, no longer feeling that just carrying around a really big book means that you’re a good reader. They develop their research skills by practicing “skimming and scanning” to locate information and by extracting information from a variety of sources with assistance. Second graders learn to plan individual and group projects, and present more formal written and oral reports. Non-fiction is a focus; one in-depth unit highlights biography and how people change the world. The study culminates in an annual event at which students present biographical speeches to visitors, and in a web-based poster that includes their research and a video. Book tastings, book talks, and drama groups continue. Art, science, and literature are interwoven in a rich unit that includes outdoor observation and identification of birds in their natural habitat. Children then return to the Art Studio to create drawings of birds they have seen.

They continue to use planning tools for writing and organizing information.