Language Arts: Elements of grammar (naming, describing words); beginning cursive; animal fables and legends from around the world; decoding and sight word recognition; building fluency through regular practice (oral and silent reading); comprehension through story recall

Science: Gardening and nature studies; weather; day and night

History & Social Studies: Multicultural stories; lives of inspiring people who affected history

Handwork: Knitting patterns of knit and purl (pattern recognition and perpetuation, concentration, fine motor skill development)

Foreign Language: Continuing Spanish with songs, plays, poetry, games, and simple conversations

Visual & Performing Arts: Form drawing; painting; beeswax modeling; singing; pentatonic flute, drama

Movement/Physical Education/Games: Eurythmy; circle games; imaginative games; fine and gross motor activities; activities with props (balls, hoops, etc.) and exploration of the dynamics of objects

In second grade children become interested in polarities in their lives. An awareness of opposites begins to unfold. If a circle of children with everyone facing the center is the metaphorical picture of togetherness in a healthy first grade, the image of the second grade is the circle with children becoming aware also of what goes on behind and around them, leading to games played with two lines of children facing each other.

In language arts, the fairy tale of first grade gradually gives way to stories of people who overcome inner and outer obstacles. These people who strive depict humanity at its best. The opposing picture would be of people who have become rutted and are now mere caricatures of themselves. This is well depicted through animal fables. Second grade children still live in a consciousness so close to nature that it is natural for animals, plants, and stones to talk and have feelings like humans. Nature stories from home surroundings, folk tales, and riddles are also included in language arts.

As in first grade, poetry continues to play an important role in written and oral literature. All-class recitation leads to choral recitation by smaller groups. Tongue twisters and other speech exercises, and work on plays written in verse, join individual retelling of stories told in class as well as personal experiences, striving for clear speech of appropriate volume.

Lower case printing and cursive handwriting are presented in second grade if they have not already been introduced in first grade. The teacher leads the class in guided writing whenever possible, according to the children's growing ability to sound out and recognize words. Children also copy passages from the board and express their own thoughts and recollections, all the while paying attention to well-formed and spaced script.

From the stories, songs, and verses studied during the year, introductory spelling and grammar lessons and games are imaginatively presented, in addition to daily phonics work and extension of sight recognition of high-frequency words.

The imaginative, personified quality that still lives strongly in the 7/8 year old is used to fully develop inspiring pictures, with strong visual-narrative elements, of the operations involved in the four processes in arithmetic. The students are taught to differentiate between the processes and know when to use each one as well as to be able to work simple problems of each type in their heads and on paper. In their written work, orderliness is engendered.

The concepts and mechanics of written addition and subtraction are introduced with the use of manipulatives, imaginative pictures, and carrying and regrouping activities. The neat columnar writing of problems is stressed. Previous work is reviewed and practiced. The ability to write dictated and read written numbers 1-100 is firmly established before the students move on to place value. Counting by the various multiples is mastered before moving on to written multiplication and division. In second grade, rhythmic counting is transformed into the times tables (2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 10s).

Rhythmic and patterning work increase in sophistication, emphasizing the aesthetic and dynamic quality of the number line through arranging number families in various ways. Students are encouraged to consciously see order and beauty in number patterns. Visualizations of the counting patterns are introduced-string boards, group geometric forms in space, etc. Opening exercises can be built around number work, from group forms to simple computation games, and can include moving more geometric forms.

Word problems will continue as students write simple algorithms. Students solve written, oral story, and mental math problems using math concepts.