Creative Arts Charter School
Second Grade

Second Grade

Language Arts

As in all the primary grades, the 2nd grade language arts curriculum utilizes a balanced approach to literacy, incorporating both phonics and whole language.

Children learn how sounds are made in their mouths and continue to explore sound/symbol identification. Once the sounds and labels are learned, they are manipulated as pictures, blocks or individual letters to form words and phonemes. The program also introduces syllabication and spelling. Whole language approaches include journal writing, experience stories, chants, rhymes and songs. As in all curricular areas, skills are taught through integrating subject matter. While learning about the solar system, the students practice their literacy skills by reading books about "space," writing and recording science experiments, reading leveled books about the topic, and writing creative fiction.

Individualized reading practice and assessment is done through one-on-one instruction and in small groups, using skill-appropriate literature and targeted reading materials.

Mathematics

The 2nd grade math curriculum builds on the concepts introduced in kindergarten and 1st grade. An emphasis on abstract thinking relies on the continued support of hands-on manipulatives and daily experiences.

The math focus in 2nd grade includes introduction and reinforcement of the concepts of numeration and counting including the facts of, "10", place value, parts of the whole and patterns. Mathematical operations include practicing facts and practical applications. Students also study nonstandard units of measure, linear measurement, weight, and time.

Graphing is another content area in the math curriculum, which involves gathering and organizing data in bar graphs, line graphs, and pie charts. The charts, graphs and number line that make up the daily calendar exercises provide opportunities to learn mathematical terms, compare quantities, count by 2's, 5's and 10's, build equations, and record the passage of time.

Whenever possible, math is organized into integrated curricular themes. For instance, in a unit about the Solar System, discussions about the vast distances in space generated math lessons about place value. To develop a concept of one million, the children manipulated Dienes blocks to the millionth place.

Social Studies

Second graders, comfortable with the concepts of community and interdependence that the kindergarten and 1st grades emphasized, are exposed to beginning concepts of personal and cultural history.

The students embark upon a cultural heritage project, researching family histories, identifying ancestors' countries of origin, and creating oral presentations based on their findings. They answer questions such as: Where did our families come from and how did they get to San Francisco? Using personal experiences as a starting point, the students explore concepts of families and the movement of people around the world, including immigration and migration to San Francisco, answering the questions: Who was here first? Who came here after? And, why did they come here?

As part of their study of cultural heritage, throughout the school year students are exposed to the multi-cultural music and art of San Francisco and their classmates family's heritages.

Science

In 2nd grade, science continues to be taught through hands-on, participatory activities and the observing and recording of our physical world.

Using GEMS Guides, Lawrence Hall of Science and other sources, the students study the basic structure of the Earth, Water Cycle/Plant Cycle, and the Solar System. The 2nd grade students perform a variety of explorations to learn about the physical world and physical sciences. Through hands on experiments the students engage in scientific methods of inquiry including forming hypothesis, making predictions, observing and recording phenomena and related past experiments to new questions.

For instance, while studying the solar system the children studied jet propulsion. Using film canisters, Alka Seltzer and water, the children followed a procedure, make predictions about what will happen, observed and recorded the event, and finally make general conclusions about how jet propulsion works.

Life Sciences are related to other thematic exploration as well as to other areas of science inquiry. The students observe plant/animal growth, changes over time, recording data, and learn to draw inferences.