2nd Grade Independent Assigned Reading List

This list consists of K's 30 minutes of independent assigned reading time during school-time.  This is reading that is at or above 4th grade level and also called her "challenging" reading time.

1. Beowulf - Osborne
2. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Osborne
3. The Sword and the Stone - Osborne
4. Saint George and the Dragon - Hodges
5. Hamlet for Kids - Burdett
6. Macbeth - Burdett 
7. The Song of Roland - Osborne
8. A Midsummer Night's Dream - Burdett
9. Romeo and Juliet - Burdett
10. Finn Maccoul - Osborne
11. Island of the Lost Children - Osborne
12. Chanticleer and the Fox - Chaucer
13. The Kitchen Knight: A Tale of King Arthur - Hodges
14. The Fly on the Ceiling - Glass

Autumn Mobile

We have a Scholastic book of Autumn crafts for the classroom and one of them was this mobile.  I printed it out on cardstock and then K colored it and cut it out and its now hanging in the corner of our homeschool room.

Ashurbanipal Paper Doll

I told in another post about Famous Figures of Ancient Times paper dolls.  We finally got around to making one and we did Ashurbanipal.  I laminated it and then K cut out most of it and I put it together with the paper fasteners.  K loved it and played with him a lot and wants to do more.  The best part about these is that if you laminate them, they can be used for review of history.  We plan on doing them all and then ordering the next set for Medieval Times.

Free Animal Classification Lapbook

We did an awesome lapbook today on Animal Classification for science:

You can download all the pages to make this lapbook here:

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/animal_classification_lapbook.php

Roman Signum Project

We did chapter 1 of Story of the World 2 this week and Friday is reserved for all our projects and crafts.  The project we chose this week to do for history was making a Roman signum or standard.

Homeschool Room - Ready for 2nd Grade

I took all the posters off the walls and added some subway art, rail with buckets for pens/scissors/markers, etc. and put a string of yarn on the wall and hung some of my favorite art that K has done.

My camera didn't do well and if I turned the light on it glared off the dry erase board but here they are:

The collage shows before, after taking down the old posters and then the last one being now:

Animals and Their Needs Lapbook

We really love Homeschool Bits lapbooks as they are quick and easy and K retains a lot from doing them.  This week she did "Animals and Their Needs."  She colored, cut and glued the lapbook.  She wanted to read the lesson aloud by herself and then she answered the questions and wrote them down in each booklet.  So, I think she can do these all by herself and that really helps me out!  The best part?  It was only 50 cents!

This is something new we learned today, did you know this?

Of course, K accidentally wrote aif instead of air - we all had a good laugh!

2nd Grade History Read-Aloud Reading List

This is a list of the books that pertain to history that we have read aloud to K and will be updated throughout the year.

1. The Warlord's Puzzle - Pilegar
2. Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China - Louie
3. Two of Everything - Hong
4. Little Red Riding Hood - Ziefert
5. The Beautiful Butterfly: A Folktale from Spain - Sierra
6. Three Golden Oranges - Ada
7. Puss in Boots - Perrault
8. Count Your Way Through the Arab World - Haskins
9. Macbeth - Coville
10. Midsummer's Night Dream - Coville
11. Hamlet - Coville
12. A Medieval Feast - Aliki
13. Leif the Lucky - D'Aulaire
14. The Inch-High Samurai - McCarthy
15. Three Samurai Cats - A Story from Japan - Kimmel
16. Saint Francis - Wildsmith
17. Raisel's Riddle - Silverman
18. Liang and the Magic Paintbrush - Demi
19. Sir Cumference and The First Round Table: A Math Adventure - Neuschwander
20. The Hunter: A Chinese Folktale - Casanova
21. Adventures in the Middle Ages - Bailey
22. Little Johnny Buttermilk - Wahl
23. Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty & the Beast Tale - Yep
24. Baboushka and the Three Kings - Robbins
25. The Littlest Matryoshka - Bliss
26. The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella - Hickox
27. The Empty Pot - Demi
28. Baba Yoga and Vasilisa the Brave - Mayer
29. Turkey - Festivals of the World
30. The Duchess Bakes a Cake - Kahl
31. Blacksmith - Lilly
32. The Toy Brother - Steig
33. The Adventures of Tom Thumb - Mayer
34. The Red Balloon - Lamorisse
35. Three Sacks of Truth - Kimmel
36. The Traveling Man - Rumford
37. Cuckoo - Ehlert
38.  

Flash Cards

I love using flash cards for review as it provides an extra boost to almost anything we are learning.  Target had an awesome deal yesterday with each set being just 50 cents!  I already had a few of these from when I bought them last year but I added in some on animals, insects and space.

Goals for 2nd Grade

Overall Main Goal 
K to write her own narrations and increase in fluency.

Other Goals
Bible - knows accounts well from Genesis to death of Moses
Reading - increase reading level; increase fluency and speed
Math - scope and sequence for Saxon 2 accomplished
Grammar - can identify parts of speech; able to write own narrations
Writing - able to write 2-4 long sentences from dictation; learn New American cursive
Spelling - increase spelling while recalling rules in mind
History - understands general overview of Medieval/Early Renaissance history
Science - understands general overview of Animals, Earth Science and Astronomy
Music - accomplished beginner piano and violin; able to read notes/music fluently; general overview of composers and classical music and orchestra

Animal Classification Links

*A lot of the links didn't work and some even went to websites that have been taken over by pornography.  I'm trying to make sure none of the links do so but it is hard to keep up with old posts.  Please be cautious!

Video
Classifying Animals

Games
Various Animal Games
Animal Classification Questions
Food Chain Games
Animal Classification
Sorting Game
Animal Characteristics

Printables
Classification Table Cards
Classification Fan Cards
Animal Classifying Notebook page

Lapbook
Lapbook 

Montessori Cards
Kingdom Labels
Control Chart
Mammals
Amphibians
Arachnids
Insects
Birds
Crustaceans
Echinoderms
Fish
Myriapod
Protozoa
Reptile

Decorating with Subway Art

I had taken down most of the posters on the wall since they were geared towards K-1st leaving the walls bare.  So, I printed off some subway art with rules and encouragement and hung them above the small bookshelf in some old frames that I spray painted black.

We also put up a rail with cup holders from IKEA and I love it!  One has scissors, hole punch, etc., the next one is pens/pencils/etc. and the last one has the dry erase markers and eraser.  I love that the markers and eraser are right next to the dry erase board - it makes it really convenient for me when I'm teaching.

Easel for Teaching with Posters/Boards

I got a great deal today at Michael's!  All their art easels were 40% off and I found one to match our black furniture in the homeschool room and it ended up being about $8!  I love how it is 67 inches tall and perfect height for me for teaching from posters and other large illustrations like felt boards.  It folds up too, so I can easily tuck it in the corner of the bookshelf case if need be. 

 

2nd Grade Daily Schedule

Mon-Fri
Bible - 20m
Reading - 30m morning; 40-60m evening

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
Spelling - 15m
Grammar - 15m
Writing - 10-20m
Math - 30m

Monday & Wednesday
History - 1 to 1 1/2 hours

Tuesday
Science - 1 hour

Thursday
Piano & Violin Lessons
Music - 20m

Friday
Science
Art
Projects
Home Economics

Daily (Sun-Sat)
Piano practice -10m
Violin practice - 10m

Husband
Bible on weekends
Reads classics in evening

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is how I plan to order each morning session:

Monday - Bible; Spelling; Grammar; Writing; Reading; Math; History

Tuesday - Bible; Spelling; Grammar; Writing; Reading; Math; Science

Wednesday -Bible; Spelling; Grammar; Writing; Reading; Math; History

Thursday - Bible; Music; Piano & Violin Lessons

Friday - Bible; Science; Art; Projects; Home Economics

2011-2012 2nd Grade Yearly Schedule

We are schooling for a total of 32 weeks.  I've divided the year up into 3 trimesters, taking 3 weeks of December off and 2 weeks of March for spring break.  We plan on starting 3rd grade work in June, but may extend 2nd grade throughout the summer if we take more breaks throughout the year.

1st Trimester Start: September 19th
Trimester Ends: December 9th
Total Schooling - 12 weeks

3 weeks of December OFF

2nd Trimester Start: January 2nd
Trimester Ends: March 16th
Total Schooling - 11 weeks

Rest of March OFF

3rd Trimester Start: April 2nd
Trimester Ends/School Year Ends: June 1st
Total Schooling - 9 weeks

2nd Grade Language Arts Planning

Language arts (LA) includes spelling, grammar, reading and writing.  K will be spending 2 hours completing the four-fold LA, here is a breakdown per component:

Spelling - 15 minutes
Grammar - 20 minutes
Reading - 30m 4th grade and above reading level books; 40-60m books below reading level
Writing - 10 minutes

We will keep a binder for LA with a section for each of the four components.  I've outlined some things I wanted to remember for this year with each subject:

Spelling - test spelling lists weekly and keep a list of trouble words and trouble rules;  K copies rules she has trouble with and reads them out loud; two times a week review trouble words and trouble rules.

Grammar - write down K's narrations and read it back to her; towards the middle of the school year she should be writing the first sentence down by herself;  Memorize 12 pieces.

Reading - oral reading for fluency once a week with McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader;  two times per week K is to give me two to four sentences about the plot of the book she is reading for her challenging reading; no narrations on fun books; only filing her imaginative reading in this notebook - stories, myths, fairy tales, poems and novels; factual books and biography reading goes in history notebook.

We still review phonics from the OPGTR to make sure K grasped all the phonics rules and we will continue to review them occasionally.

Writing - practices cursive daily for 5 minutes; dictation daily using WWE 2; once a month writes penpals

With writing, it is not only a skill but a content area.  We are laying the foundation that makes a good writer, that is why I don't have my daughter doing creative writing until the logic stage.  I like how Susan Wise Bauer puts it "The creative writing is a natural gift; the ability to think through information, organize it, and put it down on paper needs to be taught."  Our writing program consists of:

1. Narration - in literature, history and science
2. Copywork
3. Dictation

K narrates twice a week from whatever book she is reading from her challenging list.  She also narrates as it comes up in the grammar book.  When we do our history chapter, she narrates to me.  Lastly, when we do science, she narrates to me after each lesson.  This year we will be concentrating on improving her narration to the point that she can identify the most important element or central thought of the passage.  She will also start dictation and she has already had some practice in dictation with small sentences out of All About Spelling.  By the end of 2nd grade, she should be able to write two long sentences from dictation after only two repetitions.

Our Homeschool P.E.

I've been taking some ideas from a homeschool P.E. book (Physical Education), and combining it with my own past experience as a personal trainer and developing a P.E. class for K.  Today was our first day of an actual structured homeschool P.E. class outside and here is what we did:


Jump rope - 3 minutes
American Hopscotch - 5 minutes
Kickball - 10 minutes
4 Relay runs with last lap walking - 5 minutes
Stretches - 2 minutes

Total P.E. time: 25 minutes


K loved it and didn't want to stop and can't wait till our next P.E. class on Monday!  We also did it right before lunch, so it was refreshing to come inside and cool down and eat.  I didn't think I was going to get a workout but I was sweating and breathing hard during kickball!