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2nd Grade

Second grade at the Islamic Academy of Alabama is a transformational experience for our young learners. This is the year in which they transition from learning the basics or reading and math taught in Kindergarten and 1st grade to more in depth content throughout second grade. Not only do they learn how to apply the basic skills they have learned in their early academic life, they also learn the value of our Islamic environment and community by attending daily prayer in the masjid and Jumah prayer.

In second grade, we also focus on the emotional and mental well-being of our classroom by emphasizing the idea that our classroom is a community. Each day we begin with a morning meeting, in which the students share their feelings as well as one thing for which they are grateful. 

Our Academic courses and content are taught by using a whole brain approach, which helps meet the needs for a variety of learning styles. Classwork is also differentiated to meet the needs of all students. 

The 2nd grade core courses include; English Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, and Science.  In English/Language Arts we currently use the Reading Street curriculum by Savvas. Our math curriculum is McGraw Hill, My Math and our science curriculum is Interactive Science by Pearson. Our core curriculum is implemented along with an enriched and unique Arabic and Islamic Studies program guided by experienced instructors. 

Objectives/ Alabama State Standards

English/Language Arts

Foundational Skills

  • Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words 
  • Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension
  • Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding 
  • Read orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings 
  • Use context to confirm or self-correct; Reread as necessary Writing Standards 
  • Write opinion pieces introducing topic, providing reasons for opinions and closing section 
  • Write informative texts with topic introduction, facts, definitions and a concluding statement
  • Write narratives recounting well-elaborated events, including details and providing closure
  • Strengthen writing through revision and editing; Use digital tools to produce and publish writing 

Reading Standards for Informational Text and Literature

  • Ask and answer who, what, when, where, why and how questions about key details in text
  • Recount stories and determine their central message, lesson or moral 
  • Identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs 
  • Describe how characters respond to major events or challenges
  • Describe the connections between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts 
  • Describe the overall structure of a story; Understand role and importance of beginning and ending 
  • Compare and contrast texts on the same topic; Compare and contrast experiences of characters 
  • Acknowledge differences in points of view of characters 
  • Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story
  • Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic 
  • Know and use various text features (captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, icons, etc) 
  • Explain how specific images contribute to and clarify a text 
  • Read and comprehend increasingly complex text 

Speaking and Listening Standards

  • Participate in conversations about Second Grade topics and texts; Seek to understand others
  • Follow agreed upon rules for discussions (listening to others with care, staying on topic, etc.)
  • Build on others’ talk in conversations by linking comments to remarks of others 
  • Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to clarify or gather information 
  • Create audio recordings of stories or poems; add visual displays to stories to clarify ideas 

Language Standards

  • Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage 
  • Demonstrate command of the conventions of capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing
  • Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown words by flexibly using Second Grade strategies 
  • Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meaning

Maths

Operations and Algebraic Thinking

  • Use addition within 100 to solve one- and two-step problems with unknowns in all positions 
  • Use subtraction within 100 to solve one- and two-step problems with unknowns in all positions
  • Fluently add and subtract within 20; Know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers 
  • Work with equal groups of objects to gain foundations for multiplication 
  • Determine whether a group of up to 20 objects has an even or odd number of members
  • Write equal addend equations to express the total number of objects arranged in rectangular arrays 

Numbers and Operations in Base Ten

  • Understand that the 3 digits of a three-digit number represent amounts of hundreds, tens and ones 
  • Count within 1,000; Skip count by fives, tens and hundreds 
  • Read and write numbers to 1,000 using base-ten numerals, number names and expanded form 
  • Compare three-digit numbers using <, = and > symbols to record comparisons
  • Use understanding of place value and number properties to add and subtract 
  • Fluently add and subtract within 100 using knowledge of place value and properties of operations 
  • Add up to 4 two-digit numbers using strategies based on place value and properties of operations 
  • Add and subtract within 1,000 using concrete models or drawings and strategies 
  • Explain why addition/subtraction strategies work, using place value and properties of operations

Measurements and Data

  • Measure and estimate lengths in standard units including inches, feet, centimeters and meters 
  • Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools 
  • Measure length of an object twice, using different units of lengths (such as inches and centimeters)
  • Measure to determine how much longer one object is than another 
  • Relate addition and subtraction to length
  • Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest 5 minutes, using a.m. and p.m. 
  • Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies
  • Draw picture or bar graph to represent data with up to 4 categories 
  • Solve addition, subtraction and comparison problems using information presented in a bar graph

Geometry

  • Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or faces 
  • Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons and cubes 
  • Partition a rectangle into rows and columns of same-size squares; Count to find total number of them 
  • Partition circles and rectangles into 2, 3 or 4 equal shares; Use words halves, thirds and fourths

Science

Matter and Its Interactions

  • Conduct an investigation to describe and classify various substances according to physical properties 
  • Collect and evaluate data to determine appropriate uses of materials based on their properties 
  • Demonstrate and explain how structures made from small pieces can be disassembled and then rearranged to make new and different structures
  • Provide evidence that some changes in matter caused by heating or cooling can be reversed and some changes are irreversible

Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics 

  • Plan and carry out an investigation, using one variable at a time, to determine the growth needs of plants. 
  • Design and construct models to simulate how animals disperse seeds or pollinate plants  
  • Obtain information from literature and other media to illustrate that there are many different kinds of living things and that they exist in different places on land and in water

Earth’s Systems

  • Make observations from media to obtain information about Earth events that happen over a short period of time or over a time period longer than one can observe 
  • Create models to identify physical features of Earth
  • Collect and evaluate data to identify water found on Earth and determine whether it is a solid or a liquid

Earth and Human Activity

  • Examine and test solutions that address changes caused by Earth’s events.

Social Studies

  • Relate principles of American democracy to the founding of the nation
  • Identify national historical figures and celebrations that exemplify fundamental democratic values, including equality, justice, and responsibility for the common good.   Use various primary sources, including calendars and timelines, for  reconstructing the past
  • Use vocabulary to describe segments of time, including year, decade, score,  and century
  • Differentiate between a physical map and a political map
  • Identify states, continents, oceans, and the equator using maps, globes, and  technology
  • Explain production and distribution processes
  • Describe how scarcity affects supply and demand of natural resources and  human-made products
  • Describe how and why people from various cultures immigrate to the United States
  • Identify ways people throughout the country are affected by their human and physical environments
  • Interpret legends, stories, and songs that contributed to the development of the  cultural history of the United States