Grade School
Grade 2
Second grade is the bridge from the somewhat dreamy, holistic oneness of first grade to the dramatic metamorphosis of the individual in third grade. The children still carry within them some of the imaginative consciousness of early childhood, but they are becoming more aware of themselves and others. They start to experience the positive and negative aspects of personality – both their own and that of others. Honesty and deceit, trust and betrayal, kindness and cruelty – traditional fables show these positive and negative human traits in the guise of animal characters, and in sharp contrast. The animals in the fables have no control over these qualities; the lion must be fierce, the wolf greedy, the fox cunning. In a similar way, children at this age may feel helpless to control their emotions. The legends of the saints can now be understood as offering the children a picture of the choice available to humanity to control instincts and desires, to conquer the lower “animal” nature, that separates human beings from the animals.
The class teacher has essentially three fronts to build upon and deepen, the foundations of which have been laid down in first grade: language arts and the ongoing preparation toward writing and reading; arithmetic through the solid acquisition of addition, subtraction and multiplication tables, place value, borrowing and carrying; and nature stories that continue to reveal the world of nature, and provide the basis for the later studies of both science and geography.
Language Arts
- Writing, Reading, Grammar
- Speech Formation/Dramatics
Mathematics
- All Four Processes
- Geometric Movement
Natural Sciences
- Nature Study
Social Sciences-Prehistory
- Fables & Legends (multi-cultural)
Foreign Languages
- German
- Spanish
Fine Arts
- Painting, Drawing, Modeling
Handwork
- Crochet, Sewing
Music
- Recorder, Singing
Eurythmy Physical Education
- Games