2nd Grade


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Second Grade

Ms. Emily Davies	Mrs. Leyna Lillia
Mrs. Karen Finazzo	Mrs. Heather Ray

    Liberty Corner second grade classes are lively, challenging, and full of encouragement. We ensure that each student's academic, social/emotional, and physical needs are met by individualizing instruction and offering many opportunities for children to work with partners and in small groups that help them learn how to listen, negotiate, compromise, and cooperate.
    Our language arts program integrates reading, writing, spelling, phonics, listening, viewing, and speaking. Skills are taught while studying the themes of friendship, mysteries, fairy tales, space, and Native Americans. Comprehension is built by probing questions about a story's content and concepts. Children are exposed to different forms of print, including stories, poems, songs, recipes, newspaper and magazine articles, and nonfiction. Writer's workshop helps children become stronger writers - stories become longer, plots become more interesting, and characters become more developed in second grade.
    The focus of the Everyday Math Program is to get students to think mathematically, so they can apply what they learn to solving problems in their everyday lives. Math problems arise naturally in the classroom all the time! There are many opportunities to practice estimating, measuring, graphing, and problem solving in second grade. Students also gain mastery in addition and subtraction facts and move on to place value and double and triple digit addition and subtraction. Math manipulatives, games, and puzzles provide opportunities for cooperative group practice.
    Liberty Corner Second Graders are encouraged to become confident, responsible, organized learners who exhibit enthusiasm, curiosity and persistence. We guide them as they learn to work together and independently and prepare them for the big transition to third grade.
    Our Science curriculum is hands-on. In the Insects Unit, the students learn firsthand the life cycles of a number of insects. In each investigation an insect is introduced, and students observe structures and behaviors, discuss their findings, and ask questions. Students observe and compare the stages of metamorphosis exhibited by each insect.
    In the Changes Unit, students learn about solids, liquids, and gases by exploring changes in each state. They investigate freezing, melting, evaporation, and condensation of water. In a sequence of lessons, students produce a mixture of two solids and a mixture of solids with liquids and observe the results. They work through several methods to separate mixtures: sieving, filtration, evaporation, and chromatography. The students set up races that involve sugar dissolving in water and observe the effects of particle size and water temperature on the rate at which the sugar dissolves. They also observe crystals formed as a result of evaporation. Students observe some changes that occur immediately and some that occur over time, and they begin to recognize the characteristics of chemical reactions. They investigate rusting, and they observe and collect the gas formed by mixing an effervescent tablet in water.
    In the Pebbles, Sand, and Silt Unit, the students are introduced to concepts in earth science. The investigations provide experiences for the students to increase their awareness of rocks as earth materials and natural resources. They will come to know rocks by many names and in a variety of sizes. Pebbles and sand are the same material—just different sizes.