Children develop an understanding of culture, geography, and geology, as well as explore the effects that the environment around us has on our lives and the effect that people have on the land and water around them. Community is an important thread as we explore our own identities, relationships with each other, with the larger school community, and the Chesapeake Bay area.

Language Arts

Our language arts program is built around the belief that reading, writing, speaking, and listening grow best when they are connected to meaningful content. Using Fishtank Learning curriculum as our anchor, students engage with high-quality literature and informational texts as the foundation for all of their literacy work. Rather than treating reading and writing as separate subjects, we weave them together with grammar, vocabulary, and theme study so that each subject reinforces and enriches others. 

reading

Our reading program focuses on building confident, thoughtful readers by developing comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, and phonics skills. Students engage with a wide range of texts connected to our theme studies, which deepens their background knowledge and gives them a genuine reason to read closely. Comprehension goal: students practice asking and answering questions, making connections, and using text features to navigate informational texts. Fluency and vocabulary are built through repeated exposure to rich texts and explicit instruction, while systematic phonics instruction supports students in decoding and encoding words with increasing independence. 

word study

Our word study program, UFLI (University of Florida Literacy Institute), provides structured, systematic instruction in phonics and spelling. Through regular lessons, students build the decoding and encoding skills that support both their reading fluency and their writing accuracy, with new patterns introduced and practiced in a carefully sequenced progression throughout the year. 

Writing

Second graders develop their writing skills through a range of purposeful tasks connected to our units of study. Students practice narrative and creative writing as well as writing to convey information and respond to a prompt. They are encouraged to see writing as a process — sharing their work, receiving feedback, and learning to revise with intention. As the year progresses, students work on crafting stronger sentences by incorporating vivid adjectives and verbs, descriptive language, and sensory detail. We also make space for poetry and free writing, giving students the freedom to explore their own voices and ideas. 

grammar

Grammar is taught throughout the year as a living part of reading and writing rather than as an isolated skill. Students learn about sentence structure, parts of speech, punctuation, and word choice by studying the authors they read and by examining and improving their own writing. 

Library

Second grade students have library once a week. Each class begins with a story followed by free time for children to explore the library; they find their favorite authors and learn about specific subject sections in the collection (e.g. animals, planets) and how to find them. They share books with their friends and become more independent library users.

Mathematics

Park’s math program allows for an open-ended problem-solving approach, development of real enjoyment working with numbers, and understanding based on the discovery of relationships. Using the math curriculum, Investigations in Number, Data, and Space, teachers emphasize the learning process, thinking flexibly, problem solving, showing answers more than one way, and finding all the solutions. The topics covered in second grade include:

• Coins, Number String, and Story Problems: Addition, Subtraction, and the Number System

• Attributes of Shapes and Parts of a Whole: Geometry and Fractions

• How many Stickers? How many Cents?: Addition, Subtraction, and the Number System

• Pockets, Teeth, and Guess my Rule: Modeling with Data

• How Many Tens? How Many Hundreds? Addition, Subtraction and the Number System

• How Far Can you Jump?: Linear Measurement

• Partners, Teams, and other Groups: Foundations of Multiplication

• Enough for the Class? Enough for the Grade?: Addition, Subtraction, and the Number System

• Trades, Jumps, and Stops: Early Algebra

• Ages and Timelines: Subtraction on the Open Number Line

Music

In second grade, students embark on an exciting journey to expand their musical skills and music literacy through engaging games and collaborative activities. Our approach fosters a lively and interactive learning environment where children enhance their musical abilities and learn the value of teamwork. Through a variety of rhythm and melody games, singing exercises, and creative movement activities, students are encouraged to work together, problem-solve, and share their unique ideas. This method builds important social skills and a foundation for lifelong appreciation and understanding of music.

By incorporating diverse musical traditions and perspectives, music enriches students’ understanding of global cultures and encourages critical thinking about social issues. This approach fosters a more inclusive classroom dynamic and empowers students to use music as a tool for social change.

Physical Education

In second grade physical education, students focus on building foundational skills by mastering and engaging in more complex body and spatial awareness movements. The curriculum emphasizes advancing fundamental movement patterns and locomotor skills through a variety of fun activities. As students develop coordination and teamwork, they participate in increasingly challenging drills and games that integrate the various skills they have learned. This approach helps them demonstrate their understanding and application of these skills in a supportive and engaging environment. 

Science

In second grade, students practice scientific process skills and create positive habits of mind. Hands-on exploration, discussion, collaborative group work, and literature are integral to science lessons. Children make observations; ask questions; craft hypotheses; record and analyze; and draw conclusions. Each science activity has a process objective that furthers their understanding of scientific processes.

Units of Study:

• Water: the water cycle, surface tension, and our impact on freshwater in our community
• Geology: the process of erosion, the formation of landforms, and the investigation of rocks and minerals
• Changes: states of matter, chemical reactions

Spanish

Second grade students explore the language and many distinct cultures of the Spanish-speaking world through themes that connect with the classroom curriculum. The Spanish curriculum allows for the use of targeted vocabulary and language and increasingly complex sentence structures across grade levels, providing the repetition needed to retain chunks of language. Classes explore family and pets, descriptive vocabulary, geography, and topography, among other topics.

Technology

In second grade, many technology skills revolve around writing, editing, and formatting in Google Docs using advanced skills. Students also learn how to create slideshow presentations using Google Slides to add words, pictures, animations, and transitions. They become adept in the use of Seesaw and other productivity applications to create digital portfolios, stay organized, collaborate, and effectively manage school work. Children learn about research and apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students review and build on their prior knowledge of the key concepts of digital citizenship using lessons from the Common Sense K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum. Second grade students continue their basic programming concepts with code.org’s curriculum. Additionally, children continue their robotics journey using Botley robots for a hands-on coding experience.

Theme Studies, Social Studies, History

Interdependence is the focus of our theme study; the interdependence of people in a community, animals and plants in a biome, and people with their environment. Children explore ideas of identity, community, and culture throughout the year. They develop a positive sense of curiosity and respect for people who are different from themselves and move beyond stereotypes as they explore their own varied experiences and cultures and diverse literature. Integrated into this work, we introduce students to concepts of geography and geology beginning with a particular focus on Moores Branch, the stream on our campus. Interdisciplinary projects are a dynamic part of second grade.

Visual Arts

Second grade artists continue to explore with authentic tools and materials to develop skills and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas about themselves and their world. They dive deeper into studio work by creating relief prints, painting their own color wheels and learning about tints and shades, sculpting clay slab vessels, constructing wooden sculptures, and drawing tricycles from close observation. Throughout the art units, second graders are exposed to art vocabulary, which provides them with language to go deep in their discussion of creative processes. Artists from different races, ethnicities, and genders are presented so that the students can become aware of and see themselves reflected in professional work in the larger art world. We also visit the Baltimore Museum of Art Sculpture Garden in late spring to search for and observe characteristics of outdoor sculpture, read museum signage, and practice museum visitor etiquette.