Typical 2^nd Grade Schedule:

• 8:00-8:55:Math
• 9:00-9:50:Language Arts
• 9:55-10:45:Language Arts
• 10:50-11:40:Science
• 11:40-12:20:Lunch
• 12:20-1:10:Social Studies
• 1:15-2:05:P.E. ¹
• 2:05-3:00:Art ²

1: three times a week
2: twice a week
Spanish: twice a week
Music: three times a week
Drama: once a week

2nd Grade Subject Overview

Language Arts

Students in 2nd grade continue to build on their foundations of basic reading, writing, spelling and listening skills. In addition to completing units on tall tales, fairytales, and mythology, girls explore reading materials such as chapter books, novels, and Junior Great Books through small group reading and literature circles. Daily writing helps the girls continue to develop and extend their own skills through writing prompts, letter writing, creative writing projects, reading comprehension activities, and a research paper. Through the Writers' Workshop process, students learn and practice correct grammar, punctuation, and capitalization rules. Vocabulary building and spelling are essential elements of this curriculum, and the spelling component is highly individualized through games and daily writing activities that help girls learn and apply spelling patterns. Correct letter formation for print writing is reviewed and emphasized before cursive writing is introduced during the second half of the year.

Math

The 2nd grade Math curriculum solidifies basic facts from 1st grade, while extending skills to 3-digit addition and subtraction. Students explore place value, money, time to the quarter-hour, graphing, geometry, fractions, and beginning multiplication/division skills through hands-on investigations and logical reasoning activities. Basic measurement skills are practiced and extended using scientific investigations of balance, length, weight and volume. Manipulatives and games help students gain a concrete understanding of these concepts and support the activity-based environment.

Science

Life Science
Girls in 2nd grade study the plant and animal life in hot desert climates, paying particular attention to our native Texas desert plants, survival adaptations of plants, and the lifecycles of butterflies.

Earth Science
Students learn about constellations, the Earth's moon, and our solar system's planets through an interdisciplinary unit with Language Arts that explores not only the physical characteristics, but also the Greek and Roman mythologies behind each planet. The study of planet Earth shifts to a more in-depth focus on the water cycle, seasons, and weather.

Physical Science
Through experimentation with freezing, melting, evaporation, and condensation of water, the Physical Science component concentrates on the states of matter and the changes between those states. Also included is a unit on famous inventors and inventions, in which the girls' final project is to create their own invention that solves a problem of their choice.

Social Studies

The 2nd grade social studies program is designed to help students build listening, speaking, and critical thinking skills through many engaging units on community dynamics. Students learn cooperative interaction as they work along side their peers on numerous problem solving group activities. They also think about and respond to social studies materials, while learning the difference between expository and narrative text. By reading and writing about the concepts they are learning, the girls become engaged in an interdisciplinary study with language arts. During 2nd grade social studies the girls analyze/compare/contrast images of urban, rural, and suburban communities, discover how to use a compass rose and map grid to locate important places in a community. For a mock city council meeting activity the girls role play concerned citizens as they learn the inner-workings of our city government.

Spanish

The Lower School Spanish Language Program is designed for the girls to develop an appreciation for Spanish language and culture. Language is contextualized and interdisciplinarily linked with other subjects that the students are currently exploring. 2nd grade students continue to build their oral, listening, and written proficiency through games, songs, and books.

Art

The GSA Art Curriculum is designed to develop each girl's individual creativity and self-expression through a well-rounded study of art, which includes history/context, mechanics, and hands-on application. Students are exposed to a wide variety of particular art forms and mediums, which are introduced in an historical context and exemplified in the work of notable artists such as Modigliani, Botticelli, Matisse, Vermeer, Elizabeth Vigee LeBrun, Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock, Georgia O'Keefe, and Andy Warhol. Discussion and demonstration then focuses on mechanics, and each unit culminates in a technique-oriented project in which students create original work in that medium or art form.

Artistic mediums/processes covered during the year include pastels, drawing, acrylic painting on canvas, printmaking, pen/ink, and clay. Technical instruction includes classical lessons in drawing the head and body, uses of shadow and light, landscapes, and still life. Guest artists/lecturers provide real-world perspective by sharing their work and experiences.

Throughout the course of the year, girls of all levels enjoy plenty of opportunities to experience a sense of personal accomplishment and recognition through their art by participating in international artwork exchange programs, formal gallery exhibits and informal school displays of their work, charitable events, and multi-cultural collaborative art-centered occasions such as The White Buffalo Project. Middle School students are also encouraged to enter their work in various local/regional/national competitions.

Every year, each K-8 student creates her own self-portrait, and the annual Self-Portrait Show is a highlight for the GSA community. By exploring and creating art, students not only engage in creative self-expression, but also develop another perspective from which to appreciate their own culture and that of others.

Music

Piano
The GSA K-8 Piano program is designed to promote a life-long love of music. A student's course of study is tailored to her individual development/skill/experience level and consists of a unique combination of one-on-one and group lessons in both application and music theory, practice and experimentation time, performance opportunities, and a variety of activities involving listening, discussion, and written response. The Faber and Faber Piano Adventures series lesson book materials are supplemented with repertoire from numerous sources and disparate styles. The girls learn how to decode and respond physically to traditional western music notation and interact with multiple number systems simultaneously. Reinforcement through in-class and at-home practice is an essential component of progress, and students are taught both healthy physiological approaches and strategic practice methods such as identifying patterns and layers, counting whole and subdivided beats, setting and meeting reasonable/strategic goals, hands-separate work, and small-section drilling. As a student advances, more abstract and/or nuanced issues of musicianship such as structure analysis, compositional technique, tactile relationship with the keyboard, constructive critique, personal interpretation, and expressive choices are incorporated into discussions and lessons.

The girls participate in two school-wide concerts per year, as well as other performances as they arise. These events provide performance experience as well as opportunities to learn and practice appropriate performer and audience etiquette. Throughout the course of the year, piano students at all levels are exposed to and encouraged to share their responses to a wide variety of musics representing disparate traditions, time periods, and levels of formality. Music is explored in a synaesthetic and interdisciplinary context.

Strings
Strings class at the GSA is a goal-oriented activity, since learning music is first about making music. Posture, theory, and technique are presented as important tools to reach the goal of making music and having fun, which provides a foundation for deeper and often interdisciplinary learning experiences.
2nd grade and older students are offered the option to play the violin, viola, or cello. In both 1st and 2nd grades, much time in devoted to group playing skills and teamwork. The students gain confidence in reading and writing music, develop a more controlled tone, play songs in two-part and three-part harmony, and learn practice skills and performance etiquette.

Health and Wellness

Lower School students learn about the following topics in their Physical Education classes: safety, nutrition, body systems and hygiene, dental health, harmful substances, human growth and development, and social and emotional health. The girls also develop skills such as volley throwing and catching, hand and foot dribble, shoot rhythms, cardiovascular/muscular strength and endurance, locomotor skills, and flexibility. Each of these topics will be introduced in the Physical Education classes at the kindergarten level and expanded upon each year thereafter. Handouts, worksheets, discussions, activities, and demonstrations will be used to teach various topics.

Community Service

The Girls' School encourages active participation in our community—on campus, in Austin, and around the world. Each grade participates in at least one volunteer project per year, and most participate in many more. Whenever possible, projects are linked to the classroom curriculum; for example, for the annual UNICEF collections, the 3rd and 4th graders calculate grade-level and school-wide statistics and then present them at a community meeting. Some of our recent community service projects are listed here.