Weeks in this quarter
Mathematics
- W1: Understanding Three-Digit Numbers: Hundreds, Tens, Ones
- W2: Hundreds Digit: Bundles of Tens
- W3: Hundreds Digit: Bundles of Hundreds
- W4: Skip-Counting by 5s, 10s, and 100s
- W5: Reading and Writing Numbers to 1000
- W6: Comparing Three-Digit Numbers
- W7: Fluently Add and Subtract Within 100
- W8: Adding Up to Four Two-Digit Numbers
- W9: Add and Subtract Within 1000 Using Models
English Language Arts
- W1: Asking and Answering Questions About Stories
- W2: Describing Characters' Responses to Events
- W3: Story Structure: Beginning, Middle, End
- W4: Retelling and Determining Central Message
- W5: Using Illustrations to Understand Stories
- W6: Point of View: Different Characters
- W7: Asking and Answering Questions in Nonfiction
- W8: Identifying the Main Topic of a Text
- W9: Using Text Features to Locate Information
Unit openers
Big idea
This unit is about what each digit in a number is worth. Your child learns that 10 ones make a ten and 10 tens make a hundred, then reads, writes, skip-counts and compares numbers up to 1,000. Beans, cups and bundles of craft sticks turn the idea into something your child can hold.
Why it matters
It builds on first-grade work with tens and ones. Everything in Unit 2, from adding with regrouping to finding 10 or 100 more in your head, depends on it.
Standards in plain language
Mastery looks like
- Builds any three-digit number with bags, bundles and beans (or draws it with squares, sticks and dots) and says what each digit is worth.
- Explains that 10 tens make 100 and that a zero holds an empty place, as in 307.
- Skip-counts by 5s, 10s and 100s from a number like 173, including across a hundred (193, 203).
- Writes a number three ways, for example 582, 500 + 80 + 2 and five hundred eighty-two.
- Compares two numbers such as 299 and 301 with <, > or = and names the place that decided it.
Vocabulary
ones, tens, hundred, place value, bundle, model, skip count, pattern, expanded form, word form, greater than, less than, equal
Materials
- About 100 craft sticks and rubber bands for bundles
- Dried beans, small cups and zip bags
- Hundreds chart
- Digit cards 0 to 9 on index cards
- Hundreds, Tens, Ones chart drawn on paper
- A few nickels and dimes
Short-week pacing
Keep the Monday lesson, where the week's idea is built with objects, and the Friday check. Turn the Thursday real-world problems into a few oral questions during Friday's warm-up, and do one practice page instead of two.
Watch across the unit
The most common mix-up is reading digits without their places: writing 37 for 3 hundreds, 0 tens and 7 ones, or thinking 299 is bigger than 301 because it has big digits. Ask 'How many hundreds? How many tens?' and have your child build the number.
Big idea
Your child uses place value to add and subtract, first within 100 and then within 1,000. They learn several strategies (make a ten, open number lines, compensation, base-ten drawings) and practice explaining why each one works. The goal is flexible, accurate thinking, not one fixed method.
Why it matters
It builds directly on the hundreds, tens and ones of Unit 1. It leads into the story problems of Unit 3 and the length, time and money problems of Unit 4.
Standards in plain language
- 2.NBT.B.5 Adds and subtracts within 100 using strategies, not just counting on fingers.
- 2.NBT.B.6 Adds three or four two-digit numbers by finding friendly pairs.
- 2.NBT.B.7 Adds and subtracts within 1,000 with drawings, blocks or place value, and explains the method.
- 2.NBT.B.8 Finds 10 more, 10 less, 100 more and 100 less than a number in their head.
- 2.NBT.B.9 Explains why an addition or subtraction strategy works, using place value.
- 2.OA.A.1 Solves one- and two-step story problems with addition and subtraction within 100.
Mastery looks like
- Adds and subtracts two-digit numbers such as 52 − 27 with a chosen strategy and gets the right answer.
- Adds three or four two-digit numbers by looking for pairs that make ten, as in 18 + 32 + 27 + 13.
- Adds and subtracts three-digit numbers with a drawing that shows each trade of 10 ones for a ten or 10 tens for a hundred.
- Says 10 more, 10 less, 100 more and 100 less than a number like 596 without counting.
- Explains a strategy with a 'because' sentence, such as 'I split 36 into 30 and 6.'
Vocabulary
regroup, fluency, addend, group, base ten, model, mental math, more, less, strategy, explain
Materials
- Drinking straws and rubber bands for bundles of 10 and 100
- Dried beans
- Hundreds chart
- Index cards
- Whiteboard or scrap paper for open number lines
- Math journal
Short-week pacing
Keep the Monday mini-lesson, which introduces the week's strategy, and the Friday check. Do one practice day with straws or drawings and skip the other, and use the word problem as a short warm-up.
Watch across the unit
The most common error is losing a traded ten or hundred (writing 45 + 37 = 72), or taking the smaller digit from the larger one in each place (52 − 27 = 35). Have your child build or draw the problem and say out loud each time a trade happens.
Big idea
This unit sets up the daily routine: a read-aloud, a short lesson, reading practice, writing workshop and phonics. Through books like Frog and Toad Are Friends and Owl Moon, your child learns to ask questions, notice how characters feel, find a story's lesson and read the pictures as closely as the words. In writing, your child publishes a small-moment story, an opinion piece and a two-voice piece.
Why it matters
It builds on first-grade phonics and story sense. The habits started here (asking questions, pointing to evidence, Author's Chair) carry through every later unit, starting with the nonfiction of Unit 2.
Standards in plain language
- RL.2.1 Answers who, what, where, when, why and how questions about a story.
- RL.2.2 Retells a story in order and explains its lesson.
- RL.2.3 Explains what characters do and feel when big things happen.
- RL.2.5 Describes the beginning, middle and end of a story.
- RL.2.6 Knows characters have different points of view and uses different voices for them.
- RL.2.7 Uses both the pictures and the words to understand a story.
- RF.2.3 Uses phonics to sound out new words, including vowel teams, prefixes, suffixes and longer words.
- RF.2.4 Reads smoothly, at a good pace, with expression and understanding.
- L.2.1 Uses correct grammar: collective nouns, irregular plurals, reflexive pronouns, past tense, adjectives and adverbs.
- L.2.2 Uses capitals, commas, apostrophes and correct spelling.
- L.2.4 Works out unknown words with context clues, word parts and dictionaries.
- L.2.5 Connects words to real life and notices shades of meaning (mad, angry, furious).
Mastery looks like
- Asks and answers who, what, where, when, why and how questions and points to the page that proves the answer.
- Tells how a character feels and names the clue in the words or pictures that shows it.
- Retells a story in order and states its lesson in one sentence.
- Says who is telling a story and how another character would tell it differently.
- Reads words with vowel teams (ai, ay, ee, ea, oa, ow), silent e, r-controlled vowels and the prefixes un-, re- and pre-.
Vocabulary
narrative, vowel team, character, sequence, structure, central message, opinion, evidence, illustration, point of view
Materials
- Reading notebook
- Sticky notes
- Index cards for phonics sorts
- Writing folder
- A special chair for Author's Chair
- Library copies of the unit's picture books
Anchor books
- Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel
- Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel
- Jamaica's Find by Juanita Havill
- A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
- Fireflies! by Julie Brinckloe
- Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
- Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
- Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
- The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
- The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
- Hey, Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose
Short-week pacing
Keep the read-aloud and Writing Workshop on every day you teach, since the book and the writing piece build day by day. Shorten phonics to a 5-minute word sort, skip one independent reading block, and give the Friday phonics check only for patterns you taught.
Watch across the unit
The most common snag is answering from memory or opinion instead of from the book. Ask 'Where does it say that? Show me the page' until pointing to evidence becomes a habit.
Big idea
Your child learns to read true books the way a researcher does: asking questions, finding the main topic, using headings and glossaries, noticing why the author wrote, and seeing how pictures and words work together. At the same time your child writes informational paragraphs and builds an 'All About' book on a plant or animal from the science unit, using more than one source.
Why it matters
It turns Unit 1's questioning and evidence habits toward nonfiction. The research and note-taking skills return in Unit 5's rain forest project and in the Unit 6 review.
Standards in plain language
- RI.2.1 Asks and answers questions about nonfiction using details from the text.
- RI.2.2 Tells what a whole nonfiction text is about and what each section focuses on.
- RI.2.3 Explains how ideas in a nonfiction text connect, like steps or cause and effect.
- RI.2.5 Uses headings, bold words, captions, glossaries and indexes to find information.
- RI.2.6 Explains why the author wrote the text.
- RI.2.7 Explains how pictures, diagrams and maps help readers understand.
- W.2.1 Writes opinion pieces with reasons, linking words and a closing.
- W.2.2 Writes teaching pieces with a clear topic, real facts and a closing.
- W.2.7 Learns about a topic from a few books and writes a short report, with help.
- W.2.8 Answers a question by remembering or by looking in a book you provide.
- RF.2.4 Reads smoothly, at a good pace, with expression and understanding.
- L.2.1 Uses correct grammar: collective nouns, irregular plurals, reflexive pronouns, past tense, adjectives and adverbs.
- L.2.2 Uses capitals, commas, apostrophes and correct spelling.
- L.2.4 Works out unknown words with context clues, word parts and dictionaries.
- L.2.5 Connects words to real life and notices shades of meaning (mad, angry, furious).
Mastery looks like
- Asks questions before and during reading and finds the sentence that answers each one.
- Names the main topic of a book and of a single paragraph in their own words.
- Uses a table of contents, glossary, index, headings and captions to find a fact quickly.
- Tells whether an author wrote to answer, explain, describe or entertain, and explains what a diagram adds.
- Takes notes in their own words from two sources and turns them into a short book with sections, a diagram and a glossary.
Vocabulary
nonfiction, question, main topic, fact, heading, caption, author's purpose, integrate, source, connection, revise, publish
Materials
- Library nonfiction books (Gail Gibbons and National Geographic Kids Readers work well)
- Sticky notes and sticky flags
- Research folder with one page per question
- Index cards
- Colored pencils
- Stapler for the finished book
Anchor books
- From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons
- Ants by Melissa Stewart
- What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
- Feathers: Not Just for Flying by Melissa Stewart
- Sharks by Anne Schreiber
- What Is the World Made Of? All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
- Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
- The Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons
- Weather by Kristin Baird Rattini
- Where Do Polar Bears Live? by Sarah L. Thomson
- The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
Short-week pacing
Keep the Monday read-aloud and the Writing Workshop days, because the All About book is built step by step across Weeks 10 to 12. Word study can shrink to a 5-minute card review, and the Friday reading response can be done aloud.
Watch across the unit
Children often copy whole sentences as 'notes,' or treat a story like The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a source of facts. Practice 'words, not sentences' notes, and ask 'Did the author write this to teach or to entertain?' before using a book for research.
Big idea
Everything around us is made of matter, and your child learns to describe it like a scientist: by color, texture, hardness, flexibility and whether it soaks up water. Through kitchen investigations, your child sees heating and cooling change materials, sorts changes that can and cannot be undone, and tests which material is best for a job.
Why it matters
It builds on the sorting and observing children do in kindergarten and first grade. Predicting, testing fairly and recording data are habits used in every later science unit, especially engineering in Unit 3.
Standards in plain language
- 2-PS1-1 Observes, describes and sorts materials by properties like color, texture, hardness, flexibility and absorbing water.
- 2-PS1-2 Tests materials to find which one works best for a job.
- 2-PS1-3 Knows an object can be taken apart and the same pieces built into something new.
- 2-PS1-4 Knows heating and cooling change materials, and some changes can be undone while others cannot.
- K-2-ETS1-1 Identifies a real problem and thinks about how a design could solve it.
Mastery looks like
- Describes an object with at least three property words and sorts objects by one property, then by two.
- Predicts and tests which materials absorb water and records the results in a chart.
- Explains that heat melts ice and cold freezes it again, and sorts changes as reversible or irreversible (melting ice versus cooking an egg).
- Runs a fair test (same size, same water, same time) to choose the best material for a spill or an umbrella.
- Builds different objects from the same pieces and explains that the pieces stayed the same.
Vocabulary
property, texture, hardness, flexible, absorbs, solid, liquid, melt, freeze, reversible, irreversible, test, fair
Materials
- Paper bag of small household objects
- Tray, dropper or spoon, and squares of paper towel, foil and wax paper
- Ice cube tray and plates
- Index cards for word lists
- About 20 building blocks
- Science journal
Short-week pacing
Science meets three days a week. In a short week, keep Monday's investigation and a shortened Friday conclusion where your child says what the evidence shows; the art connection is the easiest part to skip.
Watch across the unit
Children often think anything that looks different has become a new material, for example that crumpled paper is no longer paper. Ask 'Is it still the same stuff? Can we get it back?' to separate reversible from irreversible changes.
Big idea
Your child tests what plants need by growing beans with and without water and light, then looks at how plant and animal parts do jobs. The unit moves out to habitats and ends with how plants and animals depend on each other: animals use plants for food and shelter, and animals carry seeds and pollen for plants.
Why it matters
It builds on Unit 1's careful observing and fair testing, now with living things. These ideas return in depth in Unit 5 and in the life cycles of Unit 6.
Standards in plain language
- 2-LS2-1 Sets up a simple test to show that plants need sunlight and water.
- 2-LS2-2 Models how animals help plants by spreading seeds or carrying pollen.
- 2-LS4-1 Observes and compares the plants and animals that live in different places.
- K-2-ETS1-2 Draws or builds a model of a solution and explains how its shape helps it work.
Mastery looks like
- Explains from the seed bags that seeds need water to sprout and that plants need light to grow green and strong.
- Names roots, stem and leaves and the job of each, and explains how a beak's shape matches its food.
- Describes what a habitat provides (food, water, shelter, space) and matches animals to habitats.
- Names three ways seeds travel (wind, water, animals) and explains how bees move pollen.
- States a claim with evidence, such as 'Plants need water. My evidence is the seed bags.'
Vocabulary
habitat, food, water, shelter, space, root, stem, leaf, shoot, seed, pollen, pollinator
Materials
- Dried beans, paper towels and zip bags
- Paper cups and potting soil
- Ruler
- Celery, food coloring and a clear glass
- Tweezers, clothespin, spoon and straw as beak tools
- Shoebox and craft scraps
- Science notebook
Anchor books
- From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons
- What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins
- Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner
- Flip, Float, Fly: Seeds on the Move by JoAnn Early Macken
- Miss Maple's Seeds by Eliza Wheeler
- The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller
- Flowers Are Calling by Rita Gray
- The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
Short-week pacing
Keep Monday's setup, especially in Week 7 when the seed bags must be started, and a short Friday conclusion. Check and record living investigations for a few minutes even on skipped days, and drop the art connection first.
Watch across the unit
Many children expect the seed in the dark cupboard not to sprout at all, but it often does, because a seed starts on food stored inside it. Use the surprise to explain that light matters once leaves appear, and that scientists look at all the evidence.