Posted on: Thursday, September 2, 2004

What your second-grader is expected to learn

Advertiser Staff

Here's a brief description of what your second-grade child is being taught and is expected to know by the end of the year. The goals are intended to help ensure that your child is at the appropriate development level and that Hawai'i's public schools are working toward meeting Hawai'i Content and Performance Standards.

Language Arts

• Knows ways to figure out new words and to understand text

• Reads text correctly, at a good rate and with expression

• Responds to fiction and nonfiction

• Develops ideas when writing, adds details and organizes the parts

• Initiates conversations, allowing others to respond and give appropriate feedback

• Speaks standard English

Physical education

• Demonstrates critical elements of movement forms such as running, hopping and skipping

• Introduced to basic concepts of health such as the relationship between nutrition and physical fitness

• Learns to work in a group to complete tasks and assignments

• Continues to apply rules, procedures and safe practices during class time

World languages

• Answers simple questions about themselves and asks questions to get information from others

• Recognizes and uses words and phrases heard in classroom activities

• Gives examples of objects and practices from other cultures

• Participates in games, songs, celebrations and storytelling from other cultures

Mathematics

• Develops and uses strategies to solve problems

• Estimates and measures objects, time, temperature and money

• Uses properties of shapes to describe movement of objects in space

• Uses symbols to represent and describe patterns

• Collects, organizes and uses data to answer questions or make predictions

Social studies

• Compares own life with stories, issues, people and events in the past

• Explains civic concepts, such as being fair

• Evaluates own behaviors and respects different points of view

• Asks questions and solves problems about the world and its resources

• Explains basic economic concepts, such as goods and service

Science

• Tells about observations accurately

• Asks questions about what, where, why, whom and how to find answers

• Uses inquiry, problem-solving, critical thinking and technology to investigate the world

Career and life skills

• Accomplishes a task with and without the use of a modern tool

• Understands that various tools are a form of technology

• Gives reasons why people work and how working meets the needs of people

• Explores what knowledge and abilities are required for various occupations

• Understands how own skills are related to work success

Health

• Names healthy behaviors such as exercise and diet

• Identifies personal stressors and personal reactions to these stressors

• Demonstrates a variety of nonviolent strategies to resolve conflicts and disputes

• Identifies elements of a goal-setting model

Educational technology

• Begins to use computers on a network to get information from the •nternet

• Begins using computer programs to create, store and share pictures

• Participates in group projects using telecommunications

Fine arts

• Creates visual artworks, simple musical phrases, simple scenes and simple movements using different elements, materials and technology

Source: State Department of Education