Sunday, July 05, 2015

Second Grade Curriculum (updating)

This is just the beginning of our collection... I will update this as needed until August, when we will begin again.

Our Core Values
Mixie Engineering Primary School
is about:
Asking questions:
---and learning HOW to find answers.
---Reading and Writing
---Math and Science
---Building and Engineering
---Art, music, history, learning new skills

Trying hard:
---not giving up
---and working together for goals.

Meeting People in our Community:
---learning from each other
---changing the world around us for the better

And - adding for second grade (we've discussed this) -
Discerning truth from evidence and experience.
This one is so hard - and also so very important.  It is at the very core of Critical Thinking.
I also have doubts as to whether this prepares or excludes her from public education...a lot of what she got in trouble for was questioning the rules, the processes etc... things we actually raised her to do.  She was called 'argumentative' and 'disrespectful'.... At this young age it does seem like that - unless you are purposefully trying to teach these skills and are willing to draw the lines clearly for the child.  Everything is open to question up to a certain point...and she knows that point with us.  Trying to find that point with a public school teacher didn't reach anything - except a seat in the principals office (which doesn't make the line clear..only move it into the principal's court).

Special Needs:   Expressive language development - moving into the writing stage.  Asynchronous - very good reader, science topics, one level ahead at least on math, one level behind with anything to do with writing original thoughts.

Curriculum:
Art :
More drawing and painting on the easel.  Introduce chalk pastels at some point.  I really like how many details she is putting in her art now, and the way she is working on background.


Social Studies and Geography (Tied together with History):
People Together: Adventures in Time and Place :: I got this at the library book sale.  It is social studies, history and geography with lots of big type and graphics. (comparison shopping, this was an expensive book and we got it extremely cheap)  // paired with Our Neighborhoods (1979) also library sale. 

Continue with maps an geography games.  She wants to do a program like Little Passports - we kind of have all of the stuff to do that on our own, debating whether to spend 15.00 for a month to try their service. Mark says I can tear maps out of our fifty-cent 1950s world Atlas...but it seems like a travesty to do that...even though the binding is already half-broken the prints are perfect inside...*debating*

Add the 'day in the life' and sightseeing info for her 'passport countries' from Time for Kids  : France

Picked up two dollar HISTORY overview type books - good for starting off points. (She is already reading the Ancient History one)

Using Minecraft to talk about economies, transportations, projects and goals - recognizing and accomplishing goals etc.  She said she can make some world flags in Minecraft.

Science:
Geology - Rocks and Minerals book, microscope, crystals, geology samples cards (tie with geography, too).  Planning a visit to Ben Clement Mineral Museum (tentative). The Pinson mounds  are close to us, and she has expressed great interest in the archaeological finds on display at the library - try to tie some of that together.  Reelfoot Lake would be a good 'not too far away' field trip this year.

Biology : She came up with an idea for Ocean 'Aquarium' of paper fish, drawn out from pictures in book and internet and learning specific facts about them to write down (what they need, where they live, any important facts, also how big they are).  Use geography, art skills and measurement.   I think that is a great project - we painted a background for the 'aquarium' today (July 13).

Astronomy -online night sky program, Zoo in the Sky book, maybe we could visit the planetarium at Land Between the Lakes as incentive to know what she is seeing.

Body chart (hand drawn using our book set The Human Body TorStar books and Mom's artist talent) - labels for major parts and also anatomical parts - add these to spelling lists

Looking for more Chemistry experiments etc..
She wants to make oobleck again,with 'variations' -sprinkles transfer their dye to the oobleck slowly...we mixed potato starch and salt with the recipe to see what the differences were.
She asked to investigate how real the DNA idea in Jurassic Park is - can it really be recreated from amber?
Amber is tree sap.  We discussed what tree sap is - 'resin', and how it captured the mosquitoes.
We discussed seeing tree sap in a tree in our forest in real life - and sealing some plants in acrylic resin from the hardware store as a project in 'pretending' the process from the movie.
I asked on our 'Eclectic Academic' support group and they gave me a TON of articles and website links to science and biology related things we can discuss. She is at that age of asking more biology type questions, too...figuring out how to approach the subject - we've discussed some things and want to be prepared as she continues to come up with the questions.
What are fossilized fuels - and how do we know about them?   This ties in with the population questions she has asked lately...the population of the Earth multiplying and resources etc.
Don't want to forget the Space book Aunt Dot sent us.

Language / English:
Thrid grade vocabulary words (we did second and some third last year)
Continue with the first grade and move to the second grade spelling words when appropriate.
Punctuation.
Continue dictionary use.
Reading - Stink series, Little House etc.  Try to advance to less picture books as possible - might try some short stories on her to see how she fares.  I'd like to find more Encyclopedia Brown - I loved those (although I was reading my brother's copy at her age).  Movie series : Emily of New Moon Farm, about a little girl who dreams about becoming an author and just 'has' to write - it is in her bones.  Poetry : I am copying and illustrating some important poems for her to go over with me.  We've mentioned her helping me illustrate some of them as part of her art projects.

Harcourt Language: probably grade 1... This is the subject she needs the most catch-up in, so having this to go over topics will be good.  Also a Scott Foresman Grammar and Writing book grade 1, for the same reason.  The library was selling them at less than a buck each :)

Writing:
Script - reading script writing, writing her signature.  I won't do official penmanship unless she shows some interest - but it can't be 'a foreign language' to her like she claimed this summer.
First Grade writing prompts - on to second grade after we finish the first grade ones.
Poetry - Will introduce her to some basic poems beyond the kids book she has.. some wider variety, have her take her hand to writing a few more two or three verse ones on her own.
Science explanation/exploration - She will need to write a sentence or two of what she studied, and/or discovered in her science.

Math:
Continue with Khan math where we left off, we were 70% of the way through the K-2 material.
Review addition and subtraction borrowing and carrying.
Review money counting and change making.
Review measurement- add more real world scenarios and tasks.
Continue with multiplication - use in real world scenarios.
Continue with geometry/coordinates - review graphing and data from where we left off.
Continue with parts-to-whole, percent etc.

Events:
There is a quilt show in September by Murray, KY.
She wants to go to the roller rink a few more times this school year.

Materials List:
I need to buy some more : Large painting paper, acrylic paints
Ideas for : themed travel stickers, foreign coins and stamps for our passport theme

 Link to other post:  More notes and babble as I plan

No comments: