Crayons' Grade Two Outline (updated)

School Year 2008-2009
Grade Two

Teacher’s Resources
How is My Second Grader Doing in School?—Jacobson & Raymer (language and math activities)
Teaching Children, by Diane Lopez
3-R’s booklets, by Ruth Beechick

Bible:
Term 1: 1 Samuel 1-20, Matthew 1-14, selected Psalms (also planning to buy Judy Rogers’ CD of Psalms set to music, Never Be Shaken)
Term 2: 1 Sam 21-31, 2 Sam 1-12, Matthew 15-28
Term 3: 2 Sam 13-24, 1 Kings 1 & 2; Mr. Pipes and the British Hymn Makers

(Other Bible memory work is listed under Memory Work)

Each term: lessons (1x/wk) from People of the Bible: Life and Customs.
2nd and 3rd terms: Luther’s Small Catechism, section on the Lord’s Prayer

Singing
Hymns, both our own favourites and new ones from Mr. Pipes
Folk songs: sources include Canada Is For Kids series of three CDs (borrowed from library); our own books of children’s songs and folk songs; songs from Festivals, Family and Food
(Planning to purchase colouring books to accompany the CDs)

Language Arts:
Specific grade 2 skills, taught as needed, using our own books and supplements (word puzzles, a couple of Gifted and Talented workbooks, magnetic words, Scrabble letters, children's dictionary)

Skills include:
Oral communication, including narration, telephone/manners (using Uncommon Courtesy for Kids)
Listening skills (demonstrated by oral or other responses)
Capitalization, some punctuation, plurals, complete sentences, contractions, prefixes/suffixes, alphabetizing to the second letter (using Gifted and Talented workbooks, Word Puzzles Gr 2/3 workbook, other activities)
Copywork, simple dictation (spelling words with specific patterns as well as calendar words and holiday words) (We found some basic Gr 1 and 2 word lists in Kathryn Stout’s Natural Speller)
Printing practice, using Canadian Handwriting workbooks
Memory work (see list for each term)
Reading silently and out loud, and being read to (see booklists)
Writing, mostly informal, e.g. short letters
Following written directions--cooking, crafts
Library skills (short unit at the end of the year)

Math
Begin Miquon Math Blue level (see their scope and sequence)
Typical grade 2 skills including number awareness, skip counting, understanding of place value, addition & subtraction, fraction concepts, money, time, measurement, problem solving, greater than/less than, multiplication & division concepts
Games, rod activities, hundreds chart, real-life math situations, commercial & homemade board games
Math Munchers CD-Rom (good for geometric shapes)

History and Geography

Eh? to Zed--A Canadian ABeCeDarium
Choose one letter each week and find out more about the Canadian words on that page

Term 1: An Island Story chapters 22-32, Child's History of the World chp 45, 47-51 (original edition)
David Thompson activity book (and online supplements)--covers his life and explorations of the NorthWest; we learn something about the fur trade, mapmaking, and the Rocky Mountains. (I am still looking for some appropriate biographical material to go with this.)

Term 2: AIS 33-50, CHOW 52-54; Stories for Canada's Birthday by Audrey McKim; Kids' Book of the Far North (and library books about the Arctic) [Note: I had planned to buy this book and work right through it, but on second look I decided to borrow it from the library and use it only as a resource to get us started on a study of the Arctic; we will use more books from the library as well as the Internet and our own books.]

Term 3: AIS 51-61; CHOW 55-58; Stories for Canada's Birthday; Bagley's Marco Polo (To Far Cathay)

If we have time, we will also read the D’Aulaire biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Christopher Columbus; possibly also Diane Stanley’s Joan of Arc.

HOLIDAYS
A Pioneer Thanksgiving
A Pioneer Christmas (both by Barbara Greenwood; read during the appropriate seasons)
Festivals, Family and Food, by Diana Carey and Judy Large
Brother Sun, Sister Moon (biography of St. Francis)—read during Lent
Christmas books

Science and Nature
Handbook of Nature Study (including the HNS blog), and Natural Science Through the Seasons (Partridge)—as teacher resources only.

Books to read together include:
Through the Year (Frasier et al), a simply-written science reader that is referenced in Partridge's book
Among the Forest People (Pierson)
Among the Night People (Pierson)
Nightprowlers
Linnea’s Almanac
Linnea’s Windowsill Garden (if available)
Exploring Nature Around the Year: Winter


LITERATURE
A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Greek myths); Pilgrim's Progress; poems from Come Hither, an anthology edited by Walter de la Mare

Term 1-- Understood Betsy; selected poems by James Whitcomb Riley; St. George and the Dragon; Hiawatha’s Childhood (picture book with stanzas from Longfellow’s poem)
Term 2-- Wind in the Willows
Term 3-- Robin Hood

TEATIME READING

This is something new we will be trying; planned readings include The Old Nurse’s Stocking Basket and Italian Peepshow, both by Eleanor Farjeon; The Door in the Wall, by Marguerite De Angeli; and poems of Walter de la Mare and Christina Rossetti.

Extra Reading (Bedtime stories, independent reading)

Heidi
Andersen’s fairy tales
Five Children and It
Farmer Boy, The Long Winter (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Series books: Miss Bianca, Paddington, Oz books, All-of-a-Kind Family
The Story of Dr. Dolittle
holiday books
Along Came a Dog
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
Abel’s Island
The Year at Maple Hill Farm
The Tough Winter (Robert Lawson; sequel to Rabbit Hill)
The Courage of Sarah Noble
The Buffalo and the Bell (Myra Scovel; story about India)
Owls in the Family
and other books from the library

ART AND MUSIC
Composers: Mark O’Connor, Igor Stravinsky; Franz Liszt; Antonin Dvořák (some of our own records and CD’s; some borrowed from the library)
Artists: Paul Kane, Cornelius Krieghoff, William Kurelek (the “3 K’s” of Canadian art); short unit on pop art; Caspar David Friedrich; six weeks on Giotto, and six weeks on Vincent Van Gogh (one of Crayons’ favourites)
(We will use picture books and other material on these composers and artists, e.g. Stravinsky by Mike Venezia; Katie and the Sunflowers; The Yellow House (about Van Gogh); The Glorious Impossible (about Giotto); A Boy Named Giotto; Kurelek’s books Prairie Boy’s Summer, Prairie Boy’s Winter, Lumberjack, and A Northern Nativity)

Drawing and painting activities

Musical instruments--maybe start some keyboard lessons

LIFE SKILLS
Crafts--Jumbo Book of Crafts; possible sewing club with some friends; make Christmas decorations; cooking, helping at home

Phys-ed type activities

FRENCH
Aux Yeux des Enfants (short scripts based mainly on family life and seasonal topics; we use this with homemade felt-board cutouts)

MEMORY WORK
(Bible work from Teaching Children (Lopez))
TERM 1: Ps. 23, Matt. 2:1-12, poems,
TERM 2: Ps. 117, Matt. 6: 9-13, poems
TERM 3: Ps. 121, Matt. 28:1-10, poems


Related Posts:
Crayons' Grade Two: Bible
Crayons' Grade Two: Social Studies
Crayons' Grade Two: Math
Crayons' Grade Two: Language Arts
As Little As Possible
Grade Two: The Very Last First Time?