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Portrait of a Second
Grader
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Second graders have a certain
confidence: It's their third year of elementary school, and they
know their way around. They also are pleased with their growing
ability to tell stories, to inform their classmates of facts they've
learned, to do basic math and reading. Socially, some are awkwardly
trying to hook up with new friends; others remain with that one
comfortable pal. Parents need to help kids branch out and not always
allow them to do the easy thing socially. Second graders are
extremely sensitive and emotionally vulnerable. And they're
territorial: They don't like to be looked at and cannot stand
criticism. They tend to solve problems through their emotions:
"You didn't play fair; I'm not going to play with you."
Both boys and girls withdraw
under emotional stress: Tattling still typifies some second graders.
This is attention-getting behavior that parents can stop by praising
the child's accomplishments and abilities, and distracting him from
nosiness. Second graders can categorize and cluster information more
effectively. They understand symbols.
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What your
child will learn
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To the three R's add two C's:
consolidate and cooperate. 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. Second graders are still desperately eager to learn but
have not yet entered the critical peer-pressure phase.
Kids are beginning to read more
than the individual words on a page, looking for the meaning in a
group of sentences or paragraphs. In fact, reading comprehension is
the major academic focus in many second-grade classrooms. An
educational term you may hear this year is "cooperative
learning," the completion of an assignment by a group of three
or four students. Actually, teachers use this approach throughout
the school years to teach kids to work with others and to give them
a taste of shared responsibility with peers.
Computer use continues in this
year, but the Internet is usually not a part of early grade study.
Educational game
play still figures in, but children are encouraged to find ways to
make their own creations with art and word-processing
software.
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Teachers show students how
to...
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Deepen their ability to
read with fluency; begin to read for information. Read more
complex stories and books.
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Unlock the meaning of
longer words by understanding how words are constructed --
root words, prefixes, suffixes, and
contractions.
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Arrange events in order;
summarize a reading selection.
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Alphabetize according to
two or more letters.
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Write on a variety of
topics and in a variety of genres (fiction; non-fiction;
how-to; poems).
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Use hundreds, tens and ones
to show place value; recognize fractions.
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Add and subtract two-digit
numbers.
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Solve word problems using
addition and subtraction; use charts and graphs to answer
questions.
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Measure money, time,
length, weight/mass; tell time to the nearest five minutes.
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Classify objects, plants or
animals; use scales and balances, thermometers.
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See more about the people
in their world, recognize how their neighborhood is made up of
individuals who do a variety of
jobs and interact in a number of ways.
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1.
Talk
to your child about events, ideas, and stories. Start
the morning with a conversation about what each of you
expects; make dinner conversation a recap of the day.
2.
Play
car word games: Find letters of the alphabet (in order)
on license plates; keep a list of the states.
3.
Play
math games at restaurants (or at home, with take-out
menus!): Take turns being customer and waiter. Have the
customer estimate the cost of the meal while the waiter
figures the exact amount.
4.
At the
store, ask your child to estimate costs. "I have $5
to buy apples, bananas and lemons. How many can I buy of
each?"
5.
Make
flash cards to help your child with math.
6.
Have
your child create a chore chart; have him check chores
off as he completes them.
7.
If you
can share the computer with your child at home, look for
the kinds of activities that he is not likely to
encounter in school. Don't focus on word games; instead,
introduce him to the Internet as a place where his
hobbies and interests can be enriched. If whales
fascinate him, check out whale websites together, or
find the answers to questions he asks: What is the
tallest building in the world? Why doesn't the sky fall
down?
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"By second and third grade,
children are becoming less literal, more able to abstract things
from what they see and read. They gain enormously in their ability
to put themselves in other people's shoes."
Ruth Roemer, teacher trainer, New York City
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