Mrs. Julia Rock, B.S.
Welcome to Second Grade!
I’m looking forward to meeting and working with you this year. I graduated from Wayne State University in 1991 and continue to work towards my Masters in Education at Saginaw Valley State University. My husband, Mark, and our three children, Melissa, Amanda and Kayla live in Clay Township. In my free time I enjoy water sports, reading, and taking professional development courses.
You may contact me at rock@holycrossonline.net.
Here are some of the things we expect to cover in second grade:
• The parts of the Mass
• First Confession–the sacrament of Reconciliation
• First Communion–the sacrament of Eucharist
• Master Manuscript and introduce Cursive writing
• Lots of science—many experiments
• Common Core Social Studies Weekly and map skills work
• Reading reinforced by phonics, English and spelling.
• Lots of math, with many hands-on activities
All this–and a whole lot more!!
Grade 2 Curriculum Overview
RELIGION
* Begin to build a foundation for moral development
* Commandments are introduced
* Identify their church as Catholic, their own parish, the pastor and other ministers in the parish
* Begin to see themselves as Christians who express their faith through the Roman Catholic tradition
* Develop a deeper understanding of the Mass and actively participate in it
* Sacrament of Reconciliation
* Emphasis on the Eucharist as students prepare for to receive First Communion
SCIENCE
* Plants
* Animals
* Land Habitats
* Water Habitats
* Weather and Earth Changes
* Earth Yesterday and Today
* The Sun and Earth
* Moon, Stars and Planets
* Matter
* Energy
* Forces and Machines
* Forces and Magnets
* Growth and development
* Nutrition
* Exercise and fitness
* Safety and first aid
LANGUAGE ARTS
English
* Alphabetical order
* Use of the dictionary
* Types of sentences: telling, asking, commanding, exclaiming
* Punctuation: period, comma, quotations, question mark, exclamation point, apostrophe
* Capital letter: start sentences, pronoun “I,” proper nouns, letter writing, titles
* Parts of speech: nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs
* Poetry: appreciation of
* Write complex sentences using nouns and verbs, commas, contractions, colons to denote time, and capitalize proper nouns
Reading
* Enjoy listening to, reading from, talking about books
* Apply word identification skills in meaningful contexts
* Recall main idea, sequence
* Understand cause-effect in a story
* Apply story to other situations
* Automatically recognize frequently encountered words
* Use previously learned and new strategies for basis of predicting meanings of words
* Use syntactic and semantic clues including in reading context
* Use punctuation cues when reading aloud with intonations, pauses and emphasis
* Identify and describe the basic elements of various genre
* Identify and explain how authors / illustrators useliterary devices to depict major story events
* Use self-monitored comprehension skills
* Do substantial reading outside of school
Listening
* Use appropriate listening/responding behavior
* Recall important details
* Follow oral directions
* Understand, restate and follow 3- and 4-step directions
* Evaluate messages received in the media
* Know the difference between fact and opinion
Writing
* Write ideas with fluency and confidence
* Participate in activities which precede writing: drawing, reading, show and tell, etc.
* Re-see own writing to make it clearer
* Examine use of precise and descriptive words
* Go over final writing for correctness of mechanics appropriate to grade level
* Review manuscript
* Present cursive
* Set a purpose, consider audience, and begin to use styles and patterms
* Use paragraph clusters with main idea and supporting details
* Write in first- and third-person based on genre and purpose
Vocabulary
* Weekly assessment of new words and spelling
* Know the meaning of literary terms
* Use mental pictures and questioning
Phonics
* Identify consonant sounds: initial, medial and final, blends, diagraphs, hard and soft “g” and “c”
* Identify vowel sounds: short, long, “r” controlled, vowel diagraphs (oo, ea, au, aw), diphthongs (ou, ow, oi, oy, ew)
* Identify prefixes, suffixes, compound words, contractions, synonyms, antonyms and homonyms
* Use structural cues to recognize and decode words with long and short vowels, word families, diagraph wh, ph, irregular vowels ei, ie, ae, ue
Speaking
* Tell stories, share experiences and ideas appropriately, clearly, audibly and expressively
* Ask appropriate questions, make comments relevant to topic
Study Skills
* Use various components of a book
* Alphabetize
* Interpret graphs, tables
* Use dictionary
* Summarize material
MATHEMATICS
* Identify place value to hundreds
* Read, write standard numerals to 999
* Know addition, subtraction facts to 18
* Add and subtract three-digit numbers (no regrouping)
* Add and subtract 3 digit numbers (with regrouping)
* Apply problem solving strategies
* Use hand calculator to solve problems
* Identify fractional parts
* Identify and use metric units
* Units of measure (English and metric): length, volume, weight, time, temperature (Fahrenheit and Celsius); money
* Read, interpret graphs
* Understand meaning of multiplication and division
* Record, add and subract money
* Identify and describe shapes
* Create, interpret and solve problems involving pictographs
SOCIAL STUDIES
Geography is integrated in social studies content with emphasis on location and place:
* Use maps and globes
* Learn to read and interpret various map symbols
* Develop understanding of land forms
* Use directions (N, E, S, W) to describe the location of Michigan’s neighboring states relative to Michigan
* Identify the seven continents and the four major oceans
* Locate various capital cities on maps of the USA and world
* Discover our past (Indians, colonies, presidents, explorers, war, music related to these times)
* Discover our present (government, our flat, music related to these times)
PE, Music, Art, Computer and Spanish instruction is provided through East China School District’s Shared Time program with district-area nonpublic schools
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Please click on the Curriculum Overview Brochure to download and read or print (print the cover separately).
Curriculum Overview Brochure
Cover
Please go to the Curriculum page for brochures for all of the classes.