HILLTOP ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

SECOND GRADE TEAM

WELCOME TO SECOND GRADE AT HILLTOP SCHOOL!

Second grade is an exciting time in every child’s life; we look forward to making and being a part of these wonderful memories!

Morning Meeting

There’s a wonderful component to your child’s school day! It’s called “Morning Meeting” and it’s a great way to build community, set a positive tone, increase excitement about learning, and improve academic and social skills. Building a strong classroom community is vital to our success together this year. Morning Meeting lets children know that our school is a safe place where all children’s feelings and ideas are important.

EL Education

Hilltop School uses EL Education for both Language Arts and Phonics instruction. In second grade, we spend one hour on content-based literacy (known to students as Module Lessons) and one hour on structured phonics (known to students as Skills). Module Lessons provide students with the opportunity to be interactive and collaborative with one another, have exposure to rich texts, and have regular engagement with fun poems and songs. Second grade has 4 modules that allow students to build content knowledge based on topics related to social studies, science, or literature.

Skills Block

Second grade receives a one-hour block that uses a structured phonics approach. Students will learn letter-sound connections to continue to improve in reading and writing. In second grade they will learn different spelling patterns for vowel teams, affixes, and multisyllabic words. Students receive a daily whole group mini-lesson on the explicit skill. After they meet in small groups to honor and address the needs of each learner.

Module Block

In second grade, Module Lessons consist of the topics Schools and Community, Learning through Science and Story: Fossils Tell of the Earth's Changes, Researching to Build Knowledge and Teach Others: The Secret World of Pollination, and Providing for Pollinators. Students will explore the following guiding questions for each module: Module 1 Schools and Communities: What is school, and why are schools important? Why is it hard for some children to go to school in their communities? How do communities solve these problems so their children can go to school? How are schools around the world different? How are they similar? Module 2 Fossils Tell of Earth’s Changes: What do paleontologists do? How do characters respond to major events? What can we learn from studying fossils? How do readers learn more about a topic from informational texts? How do authors write compelling narratives? Module 3: The Secret World of Pollination: How do we get the fruits, flowers, and vegetables that we enjoy? How do plants grow and survive? How do pollinators help plants grow and survive? Module 4: Providing for Pollinators Why should people help pollinators to survive? How can I take action to help pollinators?

Math

Eureka Math is built around the core principle that students need to know more than just “what works” when solving a problem; they need to understand why it works. In second grade, students will extend their understanding of place value to the hundreds place. They will use this place value understanding to solve word problems, including those involving length and other units of measure. Students will continue to work on their addition and subtraction skills, quickly and accurately adding and subtracting numbers up to 20 and also working with numbers up to 100. They will also build a foundation for understanding fractions by working with shapes and geometry.
Activities in these areas will include:
~ Quickly and accurately adding numbers together that total up to 20 or less or subtracting from numbers up through 20
~ Solving one- or two-step word problems by adding or subtracting numbers up through 100
~ Understanding what the different digits mean in a three-digit number
~Adding and subtracting three-digit numbers
~ Measuring lengths of objects in standard units such as inches and centimeters
~ Solving addition and subtraction word problems involving length
~ Solving problems involving money
~ Breaking up a rectangle into same-size squares
~ Dividing circles and rectangles into halves, thirds, or fourths
~ Solving addition, subtraction, and comparison word problems using information presented in a bar graph
~Writing equations to represent the addition of equal numbers

Science: Second grade uses the FOSS science program. In this program, we study three units: Physical Science (Solids and Liquids), Earth Science (Pebbles Sand and Silt), and Life Science (Insects and Plants). Students will engage in a variety of experiments and hands-on applications.

Social Studies:

Second Graders will take part in a highly-engaging program called: “Social Studies Alive! My Community”. Your student will be an active participant, instead of a passive observer, by experiencing civics, economics, geography, and history through imaginative teaching practices that include dramatic role-playing, dynamic group projects, and writing from a historical perspective. Your student’s program contains exciting online resources, including biographies, lesson games, and reading support. In addition, they will have a Student Journal to help them organize ideas. Curious about what your child will be learning this year? This year, students will learn the basics of geography, economics, and citizenship in the context of learning about their local community. The curriculum will cover how communities are similar and different, who provides services to a community, and how communities change. We will go on to explore how students can be smart consumers, how they can become leaders in their community, and the actions taken to become good citizens. This program truly engages students in learning.

Health: Second Grade spends time exploring many health units including discussing topics of; wellness, alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, family life, and community health skills.

Students in grades kindergarten through four will be participating in health education this year as prescribed in the 2020 New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Comprehensive Health and Education as adopted by the New Jersey Board of Education on June 3, 2020. Lessons will be taught by our health/physical education teacher, our school nurse, and/or our school counselor. (Some lessons will be co-taught.) A list of descriptions of each lesson can be FOUND HERE, while more detailed information can be found on our website under 2020 NJSLS Health Lessons. CLICK HERE to access our site.