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4832 Highland Ave.

Downers Grove, IL 60515

9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Monday to Friday

2nd Grade Curriculum

Religion

The students will prepare for the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist. Our Religion lessons include our focus of the day, Scripture, prayers, music, activities, biographies, Bible stories, and doctrine.  Our second grade curriculum includes:

  • Creation
  • God’s Promise and Word
  • God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
  • Making good choices and God’s Mercy
  • Praying as Jesus did
  • Worship
  • God’s word
  • Jesus’ sacrifice
  • Sharing the Holy Meal
  • Forever in Heaven

Reading

We will cover two reading texts this year.  The texts are divided into weekly stories taken from children’s literature. Along with our texts, we have a reading workbook and leveled books for independent reading. Our daily reading class will include lessons in:

  • Phonics
  • Vocabulary
  • Reading aloud and silently
  • Study skills
  • Comprehension
  • Writing

Spelling

Each week we will teach a spelling lesson, and most weeks there will be a written test on Friday.  We will stress the recognition of structural similarities as well as phonetic similarities.  Students are asked to study for weekly spelling tests with a parent.  Review tests encompassing the past several lessons will be given at times.

In our daily work and homework, correct spelling is encouraged.  We will teach it in the writing process (prewriting, writing, revising, proofreading and publishing).

Science

Both classes use the text for information, Science vocabulary, experiments and activities. Each student will keep a Science notebook to record Science experiments and information. Our units of study are Life Science, Physical Science, Earth Science, and the Human Body.  Science projects will be assigned periodically.

Math

Our Math program follows our Math teaching standards very closely. We will start the year studying strategies for addition and subtraction facts to 20 and also include word problems. We will study place value, money, adding and subtracting 2-digit and 3-digit numbers, time, data, graphs, fractions, probability, and multiplication and division. Our Math lessons will include the problem of the day, Math Vocabulary, strategies, an introduction to the lesson, and practice and maintenance. We would like to stress the importance of keeping Math skills sharp. Practice at home with flash cards or other materials would be very helpful. There are also some wonderful websites dealing with the basic addition and subtraction facts that many of the children are using.

Social Studies

Social Studies is taught three times a week. We enjoy doing this while giving the children an in-depth approach to the experience of changing classes. Our Social Studies topics include where we live, our Earth, working together, our country today, our country long ago, and people and places in history.  Holidays and calendar activities will also be included.

Handwriting

The Zaner-Blaser handwriting method will be used for instruction. We will review letters and handwriting skills early in the year. We will stress correct letter formation, appropriate size and spacing, pencil grip, paper position, margins, headings, and legibility.

We will teach cursive strokes and begin cursive letters.  We will work on the connection of letters and reading cursive writing. Practice in cursive homework will be given as letters are learned.  It is our goal to have the students writing in cursive by the end of the year. Our spelling book introduces the lessons in cursive later in the year, and we will work with that slowly.

Language Arts

We will be using our Language Arts series this year in conjunction with our Reading and Spelling series.  We will cover grammar, speech, usage, mechanics, punctuation, vocabulary, speaking, listening, study skills, and writing. A very strong emphasis will be placed on the six traits of writing:

  • Ideas and Content
  • Organization
  • Sentence Fluency
  • Voice
  • Word Choice
  • Conventions