Developmental Picture of the Child
Grade Two serves as a bridge between the playfulness of Grade One and the dramatic birth of the individual in Grade Three. At this age children still have some of the imaginative consciousness of early childhood but are becoming more aware of themselves and of the values and perspectives of others. Each child has a deeper sense of his or her ability to grow and learn.
How the Curriculum Meets the Grade Two Student
Solid bases continue to be laid on three primary fronts: language arts and the ongoing preparation toward strong reading and writing skills; mathematics through solid acquisition of a number sense, place value, and addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills; and nature stories and outdoor play. Grade Two continues to be structured around daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly rhythms, such as the alternation of quiet focus and active movement within a lesson; the weekly subject lessons; the monthly change of the main lesson block; and annual festivals and celebrations.
Importance of Movement
Every day includes a variety of movement activities as our movements facilitate greater cognitive function; our entire brain structure is intimately connected to and grown by the movement mechanisms within our body. The healthy functioning of the senses, particularly the sense of self-movement (or proprioception), sense of life (or well-being), and balance (or vestibular) is paramount to learning. When one of these is not fully functioning or developing, learning cannot take place to its highest capacity.
