What to Expect in 2nd Grade
Here are the skills your child should have at the beginning — and by the end — of the school year.
In 2nd grade children will spend large chunks of class time reviewing skills they've learned in 1st grade. However, teachers will expect seven year olds to be able focus for longer periods of time — and to read at a basic level.
Skills Required at the Beginning of 2nd Grade
Skills Acquired During 2nd Grade
Homework
Skills Required at the Beginning of 2nd Grade
Your child's teacher will expect her to do the following:
Reading and Writing
- Read basic readers
- Expand sight word vocabulary
- Recall the sequence of events in oral and written stories
- Differentiate between fiction and nonfiction stories
- Discuss story elements such as plot, character, events, and setting
- Identify the main idea and details in a story
- Print legibly
- Recognize single and plural forms of nouns
- Write in complete sentences
- Understand basic punctuation
- Use descriptive language
Math
- Understand greater than, less than, lighter than, heavier than, the same as, etc.
- Recognize and write numbers up to 100
- Count backwards from any given point from 100
- Mentally add numbers to 10
- Add and subtract with pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters
- Tell time to the hour and half hour
- Recognize symmetry in drawings and shapes
- Combine shapes to make other shapes
- Identify, describe, and reproduce patterns with number, shapes, colors, or words
- Use simple graphs to record information
- Recognize simple mathematic symbols (e.g. "+", "= ",">","<")
- Begin to understand simple fractions
Social Studies
- Locate the United States, the seven continents, and the four oceans on a large map or globe
- Construct and interpret simple maps with cardinal directions and map key
- Demonstrate awareness of current news
- Participate in group decision making
- Understand traditions that reflect American ideals and influences from diverse cultures within the nation
- Create charts and timelines demonstrating an understanding of past and present
- Recognize shared values and goals as students in the same community, despite differences in backgrounds
Science
- Use tools such as a magnifying glass, ruler, and balancing scale
- Learn basic needs of living things by caring for animals in class
- Experiment with balls and ramps to investigate forces such as gravity, momentum, and friction
- Explore formation of the earth's surface using water, sand, silt, and pebbles
- Develop an awareness of the water cycle
- Conduct simple experiments; observe and record results
Other Subjects
- Art: Mix primary colors to make secondary colors
- Music: Use hand percussion instruments to learn rhythmic patterns
- Physical Education: Improve eye-hand coordination, balance, flexibility, and ball handling
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Skills Acquired During 2nd Grade
Teachers work diligently with 2nd graders so that they'll be able to read fluently for comprehension by the end of the year. Your child's progress during this pivotal time will greatly influence how he views himself as a reader. For that reason, if your child is having trouble, you may want to consider consulting a tutor or reading specialist for the extra help he may need. By the end of 2nd grade, your child should be able to:
Reading and Writing
- Read grade-specific material confidently and for fun
- Read with expression
- Demonstrate comprehension by predicting outcomes
- Identify main ideas and supporting details
- Decode words using cues from phonics, word order, and context
- Self-select a variety of fiction and nonfiction books
- Keep a journal
- Recognize parts of speech such as subject, verb, adjective
- Use capitalization and punctuation correctly
- Compose in poetic, narrative, creative, and expository forms
- Write in paragraph form
- Recognize spelling patterns and spell high-frequency words correctly
- Use basic research skills for presentations
- Edit and proofread classmates' work
Math
- Read, write, count, and sequence numbers up to 1,000
- Identify place value to the thousands
- Represent quantities in multiple ways (e.g., 36 = 18 + 18 = 14 + 14 + 8)
- Know addition and subtraction facts to 20
- Mentally add or subtract any two-digit numbers
- Add and subtract three-digit numbers
- Identify, describe, and extend repeating numeric patterns
- Tell time to the quarter hour; be able to calculate elapsed time (e.g. from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.)
- Count, add, and subtract money using dollar and cent symbols and decimal point
- Collect, sort, and interpret data in various graphs
Social Studies
- Discuss current events
- Recognize historical figures and their contributions to society
- Understand the relationship between consumers and producers
- Locate her hometown on a map
- Appreciate diversity among cultures in the community
Science
- Identify parts of plants and animals and explain their functions
- Study dinosaurs and the process of extinction
- Name classifications of animals
- Study life cycles, perhaps by raising caterpillars into butterflies
- Identify land forms
- Explore physical science, covering topics such as electricity, magnetism and gravity
Other Subjects
- Art: Experiment with depth and dimension integrating such media as oil pastels, crayon rubbings, collage, watercolors, tempera, weaving, sculpture or printmaking
- Music: Understand basics of musical notation, such as time, rests, clefts, and keys
- Physical Education: Jump rope, run, skip, slide, bounce and catch balls more accurately, participate in team sports
- Technology: Learn basic computer skills, such as saving and retrieving documents, accessing the Internet for classroom research and touch-typing
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Homework
Homework will become a regular, important aspect of your child's education in the 2nd grade. Teachers begin to take assignments more seriously than they have in the past; sample assignments may include book reports, worksheets, spelling lists, posters or journals. Homework for 2nd graders will average 20 to 30 minutes per night. To help your child most effectively, be available to answer questions, but don't correct her work. If you see a mistake, point out what she might want to try again. Ask questions like, "Can you show me what you did to get this answer?" If she can't get it on a second try, leave the problem uncorrected so the teacher will know that your child needs help in that area.
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