WELCOME TO

SECOND GRADE

Mrs.Ruby Liu

rliu@arlington.k12.ma.us
Twitter: @msliugrade2
http://mrsliusecondgrade.weebly.com
 Learning is a treasure that will follow its
owner everywhere

Language Arts

Reading
Readers Workshop
Whole Group Instruction
Fiction and nonfiction text
Reading response writing
Read to Self
Read to Someone
Work on Writing
Word Work
Listening to Reading / RAZ Kids / iPad / Scholastic News
Students choose to work on two/three while teacher works with small
reading groups and conferences with children

Builds independence

Fundations
Daily whole group instruction
Hands on activities to teach phonics and spelling
Weekly trick words introduced and added to word wall

Bi-weekly unit tests to assess understanding of spelling concepts taught

Writing

Writers Workshop: Lucy Calkins

 Students write in a variety of genres including personal narrative (small
moments, opinion writing, informational writing, and poetry
Students use the writing process: brainstorm, draft, revise/edit, publish
and share

Math
TERC Investigations
Students spend time exploring problems in depth
Students develop their abilities to reason mathematically (to explain, justify, make
conjectures and generalize)
Students develop their own strategies and approaches
Work in a variety of groupings (individually, pairs, small groups, whole class)

Students explore mathematics in their environment and make connections

Math Facts
Addition facts 0-20
Subtraction facts 0-18

Home reinforcement and practice

Play a variety of number sense games
Place value Money
Coin identification and value

Adding coins and dollars

Time
Hour, half hour, quarter hour
Analog and digital time

Calendar-months of year, days of the week

 Measurement
Linear measurement

Geometry
Exploring and Identifying Shapes
2D 3D Geometry
Fractions

Math Investigation 3
Second Grade
The curriculum is aligned with Massachusetts math standards.

K-5 Investigations Goals:

Support students to make sense of mathematics and learn that they can be
mathematical thinkers

Focus on computational fluency with whole numbers as a major goal of the elementary
grades

Provide substantive work in important areas of mathematics rational numbers,

geometry, measurement, data and early algebra and connections among them

Emphasize reasoning about mathematical ideas

Engage all learners in understanding mathematics

Important Parent Pointers

Look at Family Letters

Workbook Pages:
Some will be sent home and some kept at school with teacher.
Some of the pages will not be completed/corrected. It is NOT required that your
child completes them. If they do, please DO NOT return back to school.
 Much of the math practice will be achieved by playing games. Some of these games are
linked in our website.

Concepts may not be completely mastered within a unit. The curriculum is designed with
multiple opportunities for children to learn over time and over units.

Social Studies
Geography
Name and locate continents
Name and locate oceans
Directions on a compass rose
Basic map skills
Important landmarks

Teosinte and Japan

Arlington sister schools
Geographical features
Culture
Home and school life
Arts and crafts
Comparing and contrasting Teosinte and Japan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Science

Physical Science: Solids and Liquids

Earth Science: Pebbles, Sand and Silt
Life Science: Insects
 The Great Body Shop
The Great Body Shop is an exciting, comprehensive health education and
substance abuse prevention program. The following are the second grade
sequence of units:
Lets Stay Safe
How you think

The Wide World of Food

Your Heart, Small but Strong

When I Feel Afraid

Babiesand How you Grew

Drugs are Dangerous

Germs! They Make You Sick

Me and My Skin

Muscles in Motion

Open Circle
Open Circle is a comprehensive social competency program that supports
elementary school children in developing the social and emotional skills
needed to be good learners and to form healthy, positive relationships with
people. Lesson Topics include:
Being a good listener
Including one another

Cooperating

When to tell a responsible adult and when to handle a situation yourself

 Teasing

Recognizing differences

Getting calm

Problem solving

The goal of these lessons is to create a cooperative classroom environment and

to give children the skills they need to solve interpersonal problems and to
build positive relationships.