During our second grade year, we enter a closer relationship with God by preparing and receiving the sacraments of first reconciliation and First Holy Communion. We study how God calls us to be with Him and understand that we are a part of a larger and greater community. We also learn to serve one another and practice this by writing to home-bound parishioners and making prayer quilts to give to those who are ill.

In second grade we graduate from studying phonics and focus on building our vocabulary and comprehension skills. The Lucy Calkins curriculum provides mini-lessons to strengthen these skills and allows us to practice at our own reading levels. We continue to expand our writing by making longer sentences and learn how to craft a paragraph. We use a variety of strategies to learn to improve writing our thoughts on paper. Our greatest writing project is our Animal Zoo in which we research an animal and become that animal’s expert. This project culminates in the spring when we share our project with our community on our Animal Zoo day.

Second grade students continue to use hands-on methods to increase their knowledge of math basics. All basic addition and subtraction facts through 10 are mastered. The two largest skills learned in second grade are to add and subtract two- and three-digit numbers!

Sciences allows us to explore the world God created for us to live in. We discover what plants needs are. We learn what matter is and how to identify if it is a solid, liquid, or gas. Lastly, we study what air is and how it applies to the large natural events such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. We also study how air is used for flight.

Social studies allows us to learn what a community is and where people work, live, and play. We connect this to how God has made a community for us and how to take care of it. We also learn about consumers and producers as well as the basics of supply and demand.