Colebrook Consolidated School

Mrs. Pastore's Second Grade

                     FOCUS FOR THE YEAR:
     According to Emily Sachar, second graders add the three C's: Consolidate, Cooperate, and Calculate to the original three R's.  "By the time most children enter second grade, they have acquired many of the skills they will need to function in school for years to come—taking turns, following rules, sharing, cooperating and reading.  This is the year to refine academic abilities.  Teachers say second grade is a "magical" year—kids are still desperately eager to learn but have not yet entered the critical peer-pressure phase."

     The academic focus for the year will be on reading, creative writing, and math.  These core subject areas are very important, as they become the building blocks on which future education relies.

     In first grade many beginning readers are concentrating on reading "words".  While this skill of "sounding out" words continues to be refined, the focus in second grade deals more with the understanding behind the written word.  Comprehension becomes a major component of daily reading, as main characters, settings, story problems and solutions are discussed constantly whether reading for pleasure or as part of a lesson.

     Writing occurs in all subject areas and becomes a natural way to practice this very important skill.  Besides continuing to write stories and books, second graders will write about science and social studies topics.  Even in math they will write as they learn to create their own word problems and then explain how to solve them.

     The emphasis in math is on mastery.  They have begun working on facts through 10 in first grade.  This year the focus will be on mastering those facts and increasing their knowledge of facts through 18.  This solid foundation is necessary as they prepare to begin addition and subtraction with regrouping later in the year and in third grade.

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