Gr 2 – Ms. Healy
Grade 2 – Room 4 – Ms. Healy
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Syllabus
The following outline is an overview of instruction for your child in second grade. We will use various strategies to meet the needs of our total group and the individual child. This is not intended to be an inclusive plan. We try to build on student interest and follow up on emergent topics by attending professional development workshops and working with colleagues.
Reading Pegasus (Kendall Hunt), multiple copy picture books, novel sets, and class and school library materials.
Reading is the first thing we do in the morning and it is also tied in with the rest of the day. Centers, small groups, one on one, partner work and whole group instruction are the various ways in which the students will work on skills and strategies.
Skills/strategies practiced:
- Comprehension
- Fluency/expression/phrasing
- Predicting/checking
- Self-correction
- Vocabulary development
- Reading for meaning
- Main idea/detail
- Summarizing/sequencing
- Alphabetical order
- Story elements
- Finding facts/research
- Phonics
- Daily Oral Language/DOL-grammar
Assessments: Reading assessments are ongoing throughout the school year. The Developmental Reading Assessment is a tool that is used to measure growth from fall to spring.
Spelling lists will be individualized this year. The students will use their words to work on various skills. In addition to the personalized list we will have a whole class word list that we will also work on. The words will be from a unit of study, special spelling rules, or phonetic patterns.
Writing Lucy Calkins Writer’s Workshop (Units of Study for Primary Writing)
Writer’s Workshop will begin with a whole group mini lesson around a specific skill or discussion of a mentor text. Next the students will write independently for varying lengths of time. While students write, we will be conferencing with each student to guide them depending on individual needs. The Workshop concludes with a whole group meeting. During this time we share and discuss concepts from the mini lesson and from the independent writing time.
Units of study include:
- Launching/Small Moments (Personal Narratives)
- Craft of Revision
- Non-fiction: All About/How to Books
- Authors as Mentors
- Fiction
- Poetry
- Realistic Fiction
Assessments: Writing will be assessed on a continual basis.
Handwriting Our handwriting curriculum is called Handwriting Without Tears. We spend a little time each week formally teaching handwriting skills. Skills will be reinforced throughout the day and week.
Mathematics Everyday Mathematics, University of Chicago School of Mathematics Project
Units to be covered in second grade are:
- Numbers and Routines
- Addition and Subtraction Facts
- Place Value, Money, and Time
- Addition and Subtraction
- 3-D and 2-D Shapes
- Whole-Number Operations and Number Stories
- Patterns and Rules
- Fractions
- Measurement
- Decimals and Place Value
- Whole-Number Operations Revisited
- Year-End Reviews and Extensions
Assessments: On going records are kept of students’ work, teacher comments, and unit assessments.
Communication: Listening, speaking, and observing. Children will participate in all activities and will also have opportunities to give small presentations, reports, read-alouds, and to share their own work.
Science
Inquiry based with hands on investigations.
Balancing and Weighing (September-December)
This module introduces children to the relationship between balance and weight. A wide variety of ways to balance objects will be explored. Activities include making mobiles and balancing objects on a beam. Students learn to use an equal arm balance to compare the weight of objects and weigh objects. Further investigations enable students to solve problems by applying what they’ve learned about weighing. Finally, students apply what they have learned about balance and weights to problem solve situations that utilize dried foods.
Liquids (January-April)
Students will look at the unique characteristics of liquids, compare liquids, and investigate how they interact with solids and with one another. Theses hands on experiences not only are interesting and exciting but also create a strong foundation for future understanding of the complex properties of liquids and their interactions.
Soils (April-June)
Students will investigate many properties of soils and the importance of soil to plant growth. They use sieves and settling tubes to separate the various parts of soil samples. They investigate how water moves through soils, how soils dry out, and how soils changes in organic materials placed in the cup. Students start plants from seeds and observe how the roots grow into the soil. In a culminating activity, students grow plants in different soils and observe the different results.
Social Studies Two Storypath units: Communities and Rain Forest
- Forest Explorers
- Neighborhood
- Community
- Cultures
- Special celebrations
- Geography