Welcome to second grade and step right in! Downtown is our school and 7 is the room. If you get lost…follow the ant trail. And you will find room 7 without fail.

Reading

Most children do learn how to read. Whether or not they become good readers depends in large part upon your encouragement and help.  As with any skill, reading and writing improve with practice.  In other words, a child can learn to read by reading.  With many children, it is almost as simple as that.  With the careful selection of books at their reading level, students can progress very quickly with practice.  Second graders should read a variety of books, including fiction, nonfiction, autobiography, and biography.  They should also read magazines, newspapers, e-mail messages, letters, announcements, and other kinds of material that is part of their lives.

The State Frameworks lay out clear expectations for what second grade students need to learn during the school year.  These expectations for Reading include the following:

• To read with fluency and to understand second grade level text.  This includes literature books, textbooks, and texts and graphics that students are likely to encounter in everyday living.
• To write well developed paragraphs and friendly letters using the correct format and spelling.
•To listen critically and to organize presentations that move through a logical sequence of events.

Mathematics

There are certain performance descriptors that have been outlined in the California Standards that provide information about what your child should know and be able to do by the end of second grade.  These include:

•To know all addition and the resulting subtraction facts through sums of 20.
•To be able to use regrouping to solve two- and three- place addition and subtraction problems.
•To know multiplication facts through 5’s.
•To write and understand place value for numbers through 1,000.
• To tell time to the nearest fifteen minutes, to count money and give back change.

In second grade, regrouping is important! important! important! So that students are able to learn successfully, they first must memorize their addition and subtraction facts. Additionally, they need to understand the concept behind regrouping.  This is important so that they will remember.

In order for children to really learn a concept, they need a lot of practice in many different situations. Second graders will need to have practice with counting money, exchanging coins, and receiving back the correct change.  They will also need practice in telling time using the standard clock face. Both of these are real life skills that can be easier learned outside of the school setting where there can be lots of individual assistance.

Social Studies and Science

In Social Studies, we will be exploring living in a diverse community, and our first unit in Science will be classification of living things.  You will be receiving more information about these exciting units as the year progresses.

Mrs. Fogarty's Writing