2nd and 3rd Grade Curriculum
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2nd Grade
Language Arts
The second grade language arts curriculum focuses on writing. The students compose poetry throughout the year, compiling a book of original poems by the end of the school year. They also write short autobiographical stories and brief social studies reports. These social studies reports provide an opportunity to learn expository paragraph structure, utilizing topic, detail, and concluding sentences. Writing friendly letters and making daily open-ended journal entries round out the writing program. A Houghton Mifflin English workbook and The Evan-Moor Daily Language Review are used as resources for providing direct instruction of English skills.
Spelling
The students keep an individual dictionary of words they have misspelled in their class work. These words form a pool from which weekly spelling words are chosen. Various spelling activities, sentence and definition writing, making word searches, and drawing illustrations are used during the week, ending with a test on Friday. The number of words selected for study gradually increases as the students develop proficiency.
Penmanship
The Handwriting Without Tears program is used in the second grade to improve the legibility of the students’ school work. The double lined paper recommended in that curriculum is used for almost all work that requires writing.
Reading
The second grade reading program uses trade books to nurture a high level of interest in reading. The selections follow a pattern of genres that teaches the students to analyze their reading material. They read realistic fiction, fantasy, holiday books, nonfiction, biography, historical fiction, folklore, poetry, science fiction, and mystery stories. The classroom library reinforces this concept by including books that he/she has read during the year.
In addition, phonics, word attack skills, and comprehension strategies from the second grade Open Court series are included in the daily instruction. This maintains consistency with the first grade and third grade reading programs.
Mathematics
The second grade mathematics program uses the Harcourt Brace Math Advantage textbook as the basic instruction model. Mastering Math Facts by Otter Creek Institute and Daily Word Problems by Evan-Moor are used as supplementary materials. The focus in the second grade is the memorization of addition and subtraction facts, then simple regrouping. Additional topics include understanding place value, telling time, reading calendars and graphs, working with money, customary and metric measurement, simple fractions and geometric shapes. Students who show proficiency in any of these areas, as determined by a pretest, are given enrichment work to complete. This work is noted on their report cards.
Science and Social Studies
In the second grade science and social studies units are alternated as time permits. The science units studied are biology units about the life cycles of plants and animals and the scientific classification of animals, earth science units about the characteristics and interactions of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, Earth’s resources and the interaction between animals and the Earth. There is also a physical science unit about the properties of matter and energy. The Houghton Mifflin Discovery Works textbook is used as a basis for science instruction. There is a strong emphasis on hands-on activities and experiments in this subject.
The social studies curriculum consists of an intensive study of the community of Oklahoma City. The study incorporates the disciplines of geography, economics, sociology, history, and government. In connection with this study, the students build an abridged replica of the city with residential, recreational, industrial, commercial, rural, and government areas. They also compile a booklet about Oklahoma City using the knowledge they have gained. A number of field trips supplement this study. Then this study is expanded into a study of the state of Oklahoma using all the resources available in our city.
Specials
All students attend weekly art, religion, Spanish, and library classes and Chapel services. They go twice weekly to computer, and P. E.
Remedial Help
The Putnam City public school system provides testing and tutoring for those students needing special help in their academic pursuits and/or speech therapy.
3rd Grade
LANGUAGE ARTS
The third grade language arts curriculum focuses on writing. The students compose poetry throughout the year, compiling a book of original poems by the end of the school year. They also write short autobiographical stories and brief social studies reports. These social studies reports provide an opportunity to learn expository paragraph structure, utilizing topic, detail, and concluding sentences. Writing friendly letters and making daily open-ended journal entries round out the writing program. A Houghton Mifflin English textbook and The Evan-Moor Daily Language Review are used as resources for providing direct instruction of English skills.
SPELLING
The students keep an individual dictionary of words they have misspelled in their class work. These words form a pool from which weekly spelling words are chosen. Various spelling activities, sentence and definition writing, making word searches, and drawing illustrations are used during the week ending with a test on Friday. The number of words selected for study gradually increases as the students develop proficiency.
PENMANSHIP
Third graders are introduced to the correct formation and joining of cursive letters. The Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum is utilized. After that they spend twenty minutes a week practicing and correcting their cursive writing. By the end of the school year they do all their writing in cursive
READING
The third grade reading program uses short novels to nurture a high level of interest in reading. The selections follow a pattern of genres that teaches the students to analyze their reading material. They read realistic fiction, fantasy, holiday books, nonfiction, biography, historical fiction, folklore, poetry, science fiction, and mystery stories. The classroom library reinforces this concept by including books of the same genre that the students are currently reading. Each student keeps a Reading Log of the books that he/she has read during the year.
In addition, phonics, word attack skills, and comprehension strategies from the third grade Open Court series are included in the daily instruction. This maintains consistency with the second and fourth grade reading programs.
MATHEMATICS
The third grade mathematics program uses the Harcourt Brace Math Advantage textbook as the basic instruction model. Mastering Math Facts by Otter Creek Institute and Daily Word Problems by Evan-Moor are used as supplementary materials. The focus in the third grade is a continuation of the memorization of addition and subtraction facts with the addition of multiplication and division facts. Additional topics include regrouping across zeros, understanding place value in larger numbers, computing elapsed time, making schedules and graphs, adding and subtracting money, equivalent fractions, customary and metric measurement, geometric figures and probability. Students, who show proficiency in any of these areas, as determined by a pretest, are given enrichment work to complete. This work is noted on their report cards.
SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDIES
In the third grade science and social studies units are alternated as time permits. The science units studied are biology units about the life cycles of plants and animals and the scientific classification of animals, earth science units about the characteristics and interactions of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, Earth’s resources, and the interaction between animals and the Earth. There is also a physical science unit about the properties of matter and energy. The Houghton Mifflin Discovery Works textbook is used as a basis for science instruction. There is a strong emphasis on hands-on activities and experiments in this subject.
The social studies curriculum consists of an intensive study of the community of Oklahoma City. The study incorporates the disciplines of geography, economics, sociology, history, and government. In connection with this study the students build an abridged replica of the city with residential, recreational, industrial, commercial, rural, and government areas. They also compile a booklet about Oklahoma City using the knowledge they have gained. A number of field trips supplement this study. Then this study is expanded unto a study of the state of Oklahoma using all the resources available in our city.
SPECIALS
All students attend weekly art, religion, Spanish, and library classes, and Chapel services. P.E. classes are held every day, computer class is once a week and they have music/drama classes during each semester for a month bi-weekly before the children have a performance. In addition, the third grade students visit the Preschool Class weekly. There they are each assigned a Reading Buddy. The third graders read stories to their buddies and make cards and puzzles for them throughout the year.
REMEDIAL HELP
The Putnam City public school system provides testing and tutoring for those students needing special help in their academic pursuits and /or speech therapy.