Second grade math starts with a review of the basics from first grade and then moves to a series of new skills. Your budding mathematician will learn to order, label, and express quantities to solve problems. He or she will also begin to convert language into mathematical problems – understanding the math of everyday life while getting a little more formal with the way he or she expresses math problems. Pretty soon “take away” becomes minus and subtraction. Suddenly a simple “and” between phrases can make it an addition problem. Soon fractions become a part of your child's math world, as do patterns and spatial relationships. We have a wide variety of second grade math games and other math resources to get kids on the right track.
Here's what your child should be able to do before starting second grade math:
- Work with patterns and sequences
- Add and subtract single and two-digit numbers
- Tell time by hours and minutes
- Estimate and predict simple outcomes
- Count money
- Identify place values to hundreds
- Practice measuring length, capacity, and weight
- Work with geometric shapes
- Become familiar with the concept of symmetry
- Count higher that 100
- Identify the fractions 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4
- Solve simple word problems
By the end of second grade students working at the standard level will:
- Add and subtract two-and-three-digit numbers
- Collect and compare seasonal temperatures using a thermometer
- Use time to sequence events of the day
- Recognize, identify, and create a circle, quadrilateral, rhombus, square, triangle, trapezoid, hexagon, and parallelogram
- Compare and contrast the characteristics of shapes
- Model and find the perimeter of simple shapes
- Estimate and measure length, weight, and capacity using standard units of measurement
- Use appropriate tools and terms to explore measurement
