Continents

In second grade your child will learn about the continents and where they are located on a map. This will be a brand new concept for them. It would be great to go ahead and introduce it to them at home before the school year even begins! It takes a lot of repetition for students to master a concept. Below you will find a tutorial and also a game they can play about the continents. Have fun!

Tutorial

Game

Living Things

Your child will be learning about living things and their habitats in second grade. Below is a game, book, and quiz about living things. Have fun! It helps to also talk about these things when you see them in every day life, like in your backyard or at the lake! Seeing real life examples will always help students learn and understand better.



Book



Quiz

Read Everyday!

Reading is a very important part of education in every subject! Reading is also something that takes practice. Reading 20 minutes a day with your child has proven to make a difference in their reading ability. Books are always a great resource, and can even be found for $1 at Target when available. The public library is a great resource for free books! But now you can even let them read online. Below are some websites for reading stories, articles, and poetry. There are also books you can download for free on your cell phone or I-Pad if you own one. Keep reading daily!

www.gigglepoetry.com
www.wegivebooks.org
www.timeforkids.com
www.storyonline.net
www.learner.org/interactives/story

Weather

In second grade your child will start learning a lot about weather in science. Get them excited about learning about weather by letting them read and play games with the interactive website below. Great resource too when time comes for them to learn all about weather!

www.weatherwizkids.com

Two Digit Addition and Subtraction

One math concept that your child will practice a lot in second grade is two and three digit addition and subtraction. We touched on this concept this year in first grade, but we did not go into regrouping across place values. Khan's Academy website gives great videos for explaining math concepts below is one on two digit addition. Below the video are some math websites where your child can practice this math concept.

Video: www.khanacademy.com/video/level-2-addition?playlist=Arithmetic

Practice: www.aplusmath.com
www.coolmath.com

Podcasting

Podcasting is basically a recording of someone speaking. I have a few ideas on using podcasting with young students. Students can practice reading their favorite book by talking into a microphone attached to the computer. By doing this they can practice fluency and expression by playing it back to themselves and recording over and over until they get it they way they are satisfied. Another idea is recording reflections on a book they read or an experience they had like going on vacation. Please comment if you have any questions! Have fun!

You will have to use Audacity for recordingh, which is a free download from the web. If you want to send a web link to family and friends you can use www.podcastmachine.com to publish the recording for sharing with others.

Writing

One area I usually see some children regress during the summer is in writing. A lot of our focus is on including a beginning, middle, and end. Then we talk about adding details that include when, where, who, what, and how. Below are some fun websites where students can create online stories. You might think about creating a few together as a family throughout the summer.

www.storyjumper.com
http://storybird.com
www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/

Have fun! Please let me know if you have any questions!