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Second graders grow spiritually and emotionally through our challenging academic curriculum. Everything that we do is connected to a Biblical Worldview through our second grade year-long theme "Growing in God's Light and Shining His Light to Others!" This theme is based upon the scripture found in Matthew 5:16 of "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven." Through a Biblical worldview, we learn how every part of the curriculum is important because it teaches us to know God better as we strive to be good stewards of His world. This is how we will shine our lights to others for the glory of God.

Math
Concepts and skills through our Everyday Mathematics program include addition and subtraction operations and number stories, place value, money, time, geometry, identifying patterns and rules, fractions, measurement and decimals. Children learn best by doing. We use a hands-on approach to learning math through games and real world applications as well as through routine book practice. Children's literature is also incorporated into each unit of study.

Reading
Using a three method approach of teaching reading to developing readers, each child is supported at his/her individual level. First, leveled literacy groups are used to teach phonics, decoding strategies, fluency and comprehension. Second, teacher-read aloud novels foster a love of reading and listening skills. Finally, shared reading through short stories and novel units are utilized to learn story structure and comprehension. As we study characters and story plots, students participate in classroom discussions about their Christian responsibility to make choices that shine their lights to God's will and glory.

Language Arts
Following the model of Lucy Calkin's Writing Workshop, our writing units focus on poetry, biographies, friendly letters, and personal narratives. Grammar skills include an emphasis on sentence structure, nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Social Studies
The focus is learning where you fit into the world. Units are designed to learn that people belong to many groups, how people all work together, how people make history, how people may be good citizens, and how people interact in time and place.

Science
Using the science lab students engage in learning about plants and animals, growth and change, and personal health.  In lab, students learn through hands-on experiences.  Students are excited to observe the structures and behavior of live crayfish for several weeks, including providing an adequate habitat and caring for the crayfish as caretakers of God's creation. Students also plant their own Brassica plant, recording its growth and change of structures over time. Students learn how their bodies grow and change. Fieldtrips to the Nashville Zoo and The Adventure Science Center enhance the students' learning.

Spelling
Through our Sitton Spelling curriculum, the children learn to spell words through word study, systematic phonics approaches, writing instruction, and personal lists. Children are assessed on mastery of words that they can spell in their own writing as well as using the words in passage tests. This approach to spelling helps them learn words beyond weekly tests to use in their writing forever.

Highlights of Second Grade:

• Star of the Week: highlighting individual gifts of each student
• Weekly Bible verse studied and memorized to recite by Friday
• Flat Stanley Letter Writing Project (Students send letters across the world)
• Field Trips connected to curriculum:
  

          Nashville Zoo (Living Things),
          Children's Theater (Literature Appreciation),
          Adventure Science Center (Human Body Parts),
          Nashville Symphony (Music Appreciation).