Second Grade - Estes Park Elementary School

2nd Grade Team

2nd Grade Curriculum

Unit 2: Place Value & Measurement with Jack's Beanstalks

Learning Targets

Students work on place value by counting and modeling two and three-digit numbers
Students measure lines and perimeters using unifix cubes
Students add on an open number line

Family Resources

Unit 5: Place Value to One Thousand

Learning Targets

Students understand place value and quantities of numbers to 1000
Students solve story problems using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters
Students mentally add and subtract multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000

Family Resources

Unit 5: Place Value to One Thousand

Learning Targets

Students understand place value and quantities of numbers to 1000
Students solve story problems using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters
Students mentally add and subtract multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000

Unit 6: Geometry

Learning Targets

Students describe attributes of 2-dimensional (2D) shapes
Students find the are of rectangles
Students compose and decompose shapes
Students work on symmetry and fractions of shapes

Family Resources

Unit 6: Geometry

Learning Targets

Students describe attributes of 2-dimensional (2D) shapes
Students find the are of rectangles
Students compose and decompose shapes
Students work on symmetry and fractions of shapes

Unit 7: Measurement, Fractions, Multi-Digit Computation with Hungry Ants

Learning Targets

Students measure lengths in metric units
Students use fractions as division
Students add and subtract three-digit numbers
Students write and solve story problems

Family Resources

Unit 1: Classroom Community: Fiction & Nonfiction

Reading for All Purposes

Learning Targets

Students discuss and answer questions about stories and characters’ feelings
Students make text to self connections
Students make and discuss predictions
Students identify the main events and retell a story
Students learn and apply new vocabulary words

Foundational Reading

Phonics/Word Study Learning Targets

Students work on short and long vowels
Students work on work on homophones
Students use spell patterns of /ow/, u_e, er, ir, ur, ar, or, oo, ow, ew,
Students analyze polysyllabic words

High Frequency Words

Friend, again, find, food, looks, creeps, greets, hurt, jumps, walk, went bedroom, small, stall, my, cried, sniffed, grinned, drive, hiding, some, live, smooth, tube, brings, stinging, roundest, around, smoothest, four, between, didn’t, herd, heard, drinks, tusks, most

October

Unit 2: Making Connections Fiction

Reading for All Purposes

Learning Targets

Students discuss, retell, and answer questions about stories and folktales
Students make and confirm predictions
Students refer to text evidence to support thinking
Students make text to self and text to text connections
Students learn and apply new vocabulary including prefix im-, multiple meanings, and antonyms

Foundational Reading

Phonics/Word Study Learning Targets

Students work on short and long vowels
Students work on work on homophones
Students use spell patterns of /ow/, u_e, er, ir, ur, ar, or, oo, ow, ew,
Students analyze polysyllabic words

High Frequency Words

November

Unit 3: Visualizing Nonfiction, Fiction, & Poetry

Reading for All Purposes

Learning Targets

Students learn and apply new vocabulary including compound words and the suffix -ion, -ly and words with multiple meanings

Foundational Reading

Phonics/Word Study Learning Targets

Students use inflectional endings -ing, -ed,
Students use simple, complex, and r- controlled vowels, and inflectional endings
Students analyze polysyllabic words

High Frequency Words

where, were, their, drifted, diving, large, rocky, noisy, people, enough, climb, howl, teeth, treats, badge, fetch, why, who, sunshine, night, might, who, playing, about, young, other, grew, weak, head, first, fight, always, place, hear noises, toys, choice caught, something flew, settle, right, try

December/January

Unit 4: Making inferences in Fiction

Reading for All Purposes

Learning Targets

Students identify story settings and endings
Students identify how characters’ feelings change in a story
Students make inferences and use text evidence to support thinking
Students identify the author’s message in a fiction story
Students learn and apply new vocabulary words including antonyms, prefix pre-, and determine word meanings from context clues

Foundational Reading

Phonics/Word Study Learning Targets

Students use inflectional endings -ing, -ed,
Students use simple, complex, and r- controlled vowels, and inflectional endings
Students analyze polysyllabic words

Life Science: Animal Biodiversity Unit (Animal Adventures)

Learning Targets

Students observe the traits of different animals and use that information to organize them into groups based on their characteristics
Students observe animals, plants, and the physical characteristics of two different habitats. They collect and analyze data to compare the biodiversity between the two habitats
Students identify frogs based on their unique calls and use that information to determine the level of frog species diversity within multiple habitats
Students investigate which kinds of birds are likely to visit a bird feeder based on what they eat and design and build a prototype bird feeder that attracts a specific type of bird

October/November

Life Science: Animal Biodiversity Unit (Animal Adventures)

Learning Targets

Students observe the traits of different animals and use that information to organize them into groups based on their characteristics
Students observe animals, plants, and the physical characteristics of two different habitats. They collect and analyze data to compare the biodiversity between the two habitats
Students identify frogs based on their unique calls and use that information to determine the level of frog species diversity within multiple habitats
Students investigate which kinds of birds are likely to visit a bird feeder based on what they eat and design and build a prototype bird feeder that attracts a specific type of bird

Life Science: Plant Adaptations Unit (Plant Adventures)

Learning Targets

Students develop physical models of seed structures. They observe how structure affects the seed’s function in dispersing away from the tree
Students develop a model of a furry animal and then use it to test how far seed models with different structures can travel
Students conduct an investigation to determine that plants need water and light to grow
Students plan and conduct a series of virtual experiments in order to determine how much water and sunlight a set of mystery plants need in order to stay healthy and survive

December - February

Earth & Space Science: Erosion & Earth's Surface Unit (Work of Water)

Learning Targets

Students develop a model of the Earth’s surface and use it to discover an important principle about how rivers work: rivers flow downhill, from high places to low places
Students investigate the effects of rocks tumbling in a river. Based on their observations, they construct an explanation for why rocks on the top of mountains are much bigger than the sand at the beach
Students use a model (i.e. a map) to examine the different factors, including the shapes and kinds of land, that contribute to flash floods. They use this to predict where flash floods are most likely to happen
Students create a model landform and investigate how some Earth events can occur quickly, while others occur slowly
Students compare multiple solutions for preventing erosion

March - May

Physical Science: Material Properties Unit (Material Magic)

Learning Targets

Students investigate different material properties, such as flexibility and absorbency, and use those properties to design and build a hat that protects them from the sun
Students conduct an investigation of conductors and insulators in order to determine which are best suited for allowing people to handle hot items
Student conduct an investigation of different materials in order to determine which are most and least easily melted
Students design a new invention that takes advantage of the unique properties of a futuristic material
Students construct an evidence- based account of how a structure built of paper can be disassembled and rebuilt in new ways
Students conduct an investigation where they examine three different soil models. They use this information to determine which type of soil has the properties that will result in the best mud that can be used to build a house

Unit 1: The Writing Community - Narrative

Learning Targets

Students examine mentor texts to learning writing skills and strategies
Students add illustrations and descriptive language to narratives
Students use appropriate capitalization and punctuation
Students apply phonics skills to spell unfamiliar words
Students spell high frequency words correctly
Students write in complete sentences using a variety of sentence types

October

Unit 2: Getting Ideas - Narrative

Learning Targets

Students build stamina to write longer narratives
Students visualize and orally rehearse narratives to elaborate and extend narratives
Students examine mentor narratives for craft and skills
Students use appropriate punctuation
Students use temporal words
Students use descriptive language
Students use commas in a series