• Second Grade Curriculum Overview

    Reader’s Workshop: Reading Fundamentals by Schoolwide

    • The purpose of our reading program is to develop, expand, and enhance the skills, strategies, and tools students can use to make meaning of and interact with text.
    • Reading Fundamentals Units of Study exist inside a balanced literacy framework. Within this framework, there are opportunities to read to students (mentor texts), to read with students (shared texts), and to have students read independently (books and other texts at their independent reading levels).
    • There are four main units of study.
      • Launching the Reading Workshop
      • Fiction
      • Non-Fiction
      • Reading in the Content Area (in conjunction with our Social Studies and Science units.)

     Phonics First

    • Phonics First is based on the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading. It is language-based, multisensory, structured, sequential, and cumulative. Weekly spelling lists and homework assignments will begin shortly in order to practice the phonics rule and the “red words” (words that don’t follow phonics/spelling rules) studied in class.

    Writer’s Workshop: Writing Fundamentals by Schoolwide

    • Students receive instruction in narrative (Personal Narrative), expository (Letter Writing), and informational (All-About Books) writing.
    • Through mentor texts students will learn techniques and strategies used by exceptional authors of picture books to apply in their own writing.
    • This year second graders are encouraged to write with more independence, try out new strategies and learn to build on their writing as they revisit their work each day. They will learn first-hand that revisions are a part of writers’ daily lives. As new strategies are introduced, each child is encouraged to apply these to further develop his/her individual pieces.
    • Students will learn to use conventions of writing like punctuation and grammar. The grammar component will be integrated into the writing program.

     Mathematics: McGraw-Hill Everyday Mathematics Program

    • This is a spiraling curriculum, which means that students reencounter concepts throughout the school year as well as across grades.
    • It is a hands-on program involving concrete experiences of working with manipulatives, carrying out explorations, and playing math games to solidify skills.
    • Students work as a whole class, in small groups, and with math partners.
    • There is an emphasis on communicating mathematical thinking by sharing different ways of solving math problems.
    • All students will have opportunities to be challenged and for remediation, as needed.

     Social Studies

    • Community Study (Study of Tenafly)
    • Geography (threaded throughout the year)

     Science

    • Science units use a hands-on, guided discovery method of learning. The students generate hypotheses, perform experiments, collect and analyze data, and draw conclusions based on scientific evidence.
    • Earth's Surface and Its Changes
    • Properties of and Changes in Matter
    • Living Things and Habitats