1. Welcome to 2 nd Grade Curriculum Night

2. Reading Harcourt Trophies literacy program Comprehension activities include summarizing, comparing/contrasting, making inferences, asking and answering questions, etc. More emphasis on non-fiction reading. Phonics help to strengthen decoding and fluency.

3. Language Arts Each Harcourt story includes a phonics and spelling skill, vocabulary words and grammar focus.

4. Writing Examples of 2 nd grade writing include narrative, informational and opinion writing. Resources include Harcourt Writing, Writer’s Workshop (Lucy Calkins) and the Six Traits of Writing.

5. Math Investigations: hands-on explorations into math topics, problem-solving and inventive thinking about math. Major topics include number sense, addition and subtraction of larger numbers, time, money, measurement, geometry, graphing,, discrete math and fractions.

6. Science Physical science: Solids, Liquids and Gases Earth science: Weather Life science: Human Body, Mammals, Insects Topics include experiments and integrated writing.

7. Social Studies Resource: Harcourt Social Studies, integrates reading and writing skills into Social Studies. Major units include: Government, Our World, People Around Us, The Marketplace, and Using Resources

8. Health Harcourt Health: provides foundation for studying healthy practices Healthy food choices Importance of activity Community health resources

9. Technology Use of websites such as Dreambox, Bookflix, and other resources. Programs include Pixie 2, Kidspiration, Word, Power Point, and Typing Agent. Internet used for research in science and social studies.

10. Grading Proficient – Consistently uses a skill, shows mastery of content. Developing – Use of a skill is emerging, on the way to mastery. Area of concern – Experiencing significant difficulty in an area.

11. Grading Approximate ranges of grades: –Proficient – scores of 90% or higher –Developing – scores of 70 – 89% –Area of Concern – scores below 69% Grading is based on a variety of assessments: teacher observation, checklists, paper and pencil, performance, rubrics, etc.

12. Homework Homework provides practice of skills and responsibility and follow-through. Homework is not graded, but checked for completion and effort. Parents are asked to check homework at home for accuracy, and to help correct errors immediately.

13. Classroom Rules Behavior Expectations

14. Communication Please stay in contact through –Email –Class web page –Phone Weekly updates and news are sent through email. Please check your child’s home folder each night for notices and updates, and returned work.

15. Nothing succeeds like success! Let’s look forward to a successful year in our shared goal: helping your child reach his or her potential!