Grade 2

Grade 2 at Far Hills

Grade 2 serves as the year to build foundational academic skills, challenge students to the next level, build mission skills, build “student skills,” and cultivate a love of learning. All disciplines in the Grade 2 program intentionally include cross-curricular components, the Far Hills Pillars, and mission skills.

In Grade 2, your child becomes a more experienced writer and reader by practicing their skills in more complex and comprehensive ways. Students read bigger and more complicated books and write longer and more in-depth pieces. Grade 2 students hone their presentation and research skills and are engaged in research and critical thinking projects.

Language Arts: Reading and Writing

Grade 2 at Far Hills Country Day School is a time of magic in the world of reading. It is the year students go from learning to read to reading to learn. Students are encouraged to read to explore interests and build stamina so that reading becomes something to be done for learning and for pleasure. Word decoding skills continue to be taught and strengthened through phonemic awareness word practice, as well as a multisensory, structured approach to phonics. The students learn independent reading skills such as inference, main idea, and predicting while also exploring theme, setting, and character. The reading curriculum includes both fiction and nonfiction, with an emphasis on multiculturalism and diversity. Our students enjoy chapter book read alouds during snack time and are often seen curled up in a cozy corner enjoying a book during quiet reading time. Through these high-interest reading experiences, students develop strong comprehension skills that are crucial to success as they begin to read chapter books that are higher-level nonfiction texts.

Students have the opportunity to work with members of our Reading Support Team either 1:1 or in small groups throughout each week to continue to receive individualized instruction with targeted reading objectives.

Grade 2 has a comprehensive writing program centered around writing a complete paragraph. Students learn about starting with a strong opening sentence, adding several detailed sentences, and ending with a concluding sentence. During their time in Grade 2, students will write personal memoirs, persuasive essays, and informational pieces. Spelling and grammar skills are studied and practiced regularly.

Social Studies

The core of Far Hills Country Day School’s Grade 2 Social Studies curriculum is empathy. Our Social Studies units revolve around the important idea of understanding the human condition and the diversity of cultures and experiences throughout the world. Students study changemakers and learn what characteristics define people who have created changes for the better in this world. Students also learn about leadership and discover the traits that make for a positive, effective leader. The final Grade 2 Social Studies unit is about immigration and is studied through the Coming to America Capstone Project.

Math

Grade 2 Math at Far Hills Country Day School finds students maturing in their mathematical thinking. They continue to develop mastery of addition and subtraction skills while using basic fact fluency to add and subtract three-digit numbers. They also learn about place value and manipulate numbers up to 1,000. Problem-solving is a big part of the Grade 2 Math curriculum and a variety of strategies are used to explain thought processes. The concepts of multiplication, division, and fractions are introduced and students continue to study geometry, money, and time concepts.

Science

Building upon hands-on exploration, inquiry, and skill development, Grade 2 students learn about science phenomena across Life, Earth, and Physical science disciplines. Core skills are reinforced: observing, asking questions, defining problems, making models, communicating both verbally and through journal writing, and planning and carrying out investigations. Topics include air and weather, animal biodiversity, erosion, and earth surfaces and material properties. At the end of the year, students will be able to work safely in a lab setting, use

more science tools, follow the scientific process, practice Design Thinking, and will have strengthened teamwork skills. Two signature projects for Grade 2 students include doing a detailed study of an organism, the Penguin; and, building a parachute using Design Thinking skills. Science skills practiced in Grade 2 include: observing, asking questions, making models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, and measuring.

Spanish

In Grade 2, Spanish language reading and writing skills start to become more developmentally appropriate. The students learn the Spanish alphabet to convey the days of the week, the date of the month, their family members’ names, and some of their favorite activities.

The Penguin Project is a crosscurricular highlight of this year. As an annual signature project, the students demonstrate their learning of body parts and other personal details by comparing themselves to a fictional penguin friend in the Spanish language.

Music

Grade 2 Music classes promote active music-making by giving the students the opportunities to create, perform, respond, and connect to music in various ways. Students perform on a variety of instruments, from ukuleles to pitched xylophones to drums from all over the world. They continue to learn to read music on the treble clef staff and master dances and songs from various countries from around the world. Grade 2 musicians perform in three productions throughout the year: K–8 Holiday Concert, Second Grade Project-Based Learning Coming to America—A Study of Immigration and Empathy, and the Lower School Closing Ceremonies.

Visual Art

Grade 2 students are introduced to mixed media art and design, including printmaking, the study of historical sculpture and design, and a final painting project of the Statue of Liberty in connection with the Coming to America Capstone Project.

Learning and Design

Far Hills Country Day School’s Grade 2 students utilize their iPads as an integral tool in the learning process.

Lessons focus on increasing their comfort and advancing their skills with familiar apps as they create content for a variety of subjects. The concept of Digital Citizenship moves towards privacy and understanding a digital footprint. Students use the Dash robot in addition to Dot and other resources as they continue their coding work with sequences and loops. The concept of working through iterations as part of the Design Thinking process is introduced. Many components of the Grade 2 Capstone Coming to America project are integrated into Digital Learning and Design class, including a field trip to the Tenement Museum using virtual reality technology, a scrapbook created with the Book Creator app, and the individual immigration stories recorded using the green screen.

Library

Far Hills Country Day School Grade 2 students study U.S. symbols to prepare for their immigration study and look more closely at nonfiction resources for research purposes. The research process continues for Grade 2 students as they use Thinking Maps to take notes and learn about paraphrasing, writing, using nonfiction resources, and citing sources. Their learning is typically expressed with a particular digital tool (PicCollage, Google Slides, Google Sites, and Book Creator).

Social-Emotional Learning

Grade 2 students practice mindfulness techniques daily to help them learn to go from a flight or fight reaction to a more measured response. Learning the neuroscience of the brain helps students understand how our brains work and why we react to the world the way that we do. Grade 2 uses a children’s program called “Brain Talk Therapy” to understand how our amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and hypothalamus work together to help us be deciders rather than just doers. Grade 2 students also learn about the Piglet Mindset: Through observing and virtually getting to know a little blind and deaf dog, students learn about optimism, resilience, perseverance, and acceptance. Students are encouraged to bring a Piglet Mindset into their everyday lives.

Highlights of Grade Level Objectives

By the end of Grade 2, Far Hills Country Day School students will be able to: • sustain independent reading; • use strategies based on place value to add and subtract numbers with and without regrouping • write five-sentence paragraphs; and • spell the first 200 sight words.