2nd Grade Math Skills and Concepts

Addition and Subtraction Math Facts should be mastered by the end of the 2nd Grade. Students will review Math Fact Addition strategies such as “Doubles” (6+6 or 4+4), “Turnarounds” (2+7 = 7+2), “Near Doubles”, “Almost Doubles” or “Doubles Plus 1” (6+6+12, so 6+7= one more, or 13). Kids will also learn other math strategies for both Addition and Subtraction that will enable them to really master their Math Facts.

Children in Second Grade will learn to add and subtract larger numbers (ex: 2-digit numbers such as 46+19, or 72-58). More than one math strategy may be taught to solve these problems, including Mental Math.

Students in Second Grade will begin exploring Multiplication and Division in concrete ways. Kids will learn important vocabulary such as Products (answer to a multiplication question), Quotients (answer to a division question), Remainders, Fact Families, etc. Students will also be placing objects into equal groups, displaying numbers in arrays, and creating number stories.

Students in 2nd Grade will review skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s (ex: 2,4, 6, 8, or 5, 10, 15, 20). Frequently, a Hundreds Board is used to visually represent these math concepts, and to assist students in learning them.

Children in Second Grade will count / add pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollar bills. Students will continue to work on the math concept of making change.

Students in Grade 2 will learn that each digit in larger numbers has a value, depending on its position in the number. For example, in the number 52,478, the 5 is worth 5 “ten-thousands” (or 50,000), the 2 is worth 2 “thousands” (or 2,000), the 4 is worth 4 “hundreds” (or 400), the 7 is worth 7 “tens” (or 70), and the 8 is worth 8 “ones”, or simply 8.

Second-Graders will have many opportunities to measure in a variety of ways. Grade Two students may continue measuring with non-standard units (ex: hand spans) and standard units (ex: inches, feet, yards, or centimeters, decimeters and meters), as well as temperature in Fahrenheit and Celsius using a thermometer, etc.

Telling Time remains an important math skill that students will continue working on in Second Grade. They will tell time to the hour, half-hour, quarter-hour, 5 minutes and 1 minute using both digital and analog clocks. The math concept of elapsed time will also be reviewed.

Grade 2 students will learn to classify 2-dimensional shapes by shape, color and size. They will also look at various attributes of shapes (ex: number of sides, corners, etc.). Solids (3-D) such as cones, cylinders, prisms, pyramids and spheres will also be reviewed.

Second Grade students will learn about Lines, Line Segments, and Parallel Lines, and they will be introduced to Angles as well.

Fractional parts of a whole will be investigated (ex: the child will see a circle, and will divide it into several equal parts like halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, etc.) in second grade. Fractions of a group will also be explored (ex: how to divide a class of 24 children into 6 equal groups). 2nd Grade kids will shade in parts of an object to show a specified fraction, and they will explore equivalent fractions using concrete materials such as pattern blocks.

An image that is symmetrical is something that has two sides that are identical. One side could be seen as a “mirror image” of the other side. 2nd Grade students will have opportunities to look for symmetry in everyday objects, as well as create symmetrical patterns of their own. They will determine whether certain objects or pictures display line symmetry, and the number of lines of symmetry in those objects or pictures.

Children in Second Grade will continue to create various graphs (ex: bar graphs). They will also learn more about data collection, and how to organize and analyze the data. Math concepts such as Median, Mode, and Range will be learned.

Students in Grade 2 will use estimating and rounding as useful math strategies to get an approximate answer, and they will also estimate to verify that their answer (to an Addition or Subtraction question) makes sense.

Students in 2nd Grade will begin learning about different types of measuring, such as measuring the contents of a container (Capacity) and the Weight of small objects. Kids will work with both the U.S. Customary Measuring System, and the Metric System. Children will learn terms such as Cups, Pints, Quarts, Gallons, Liters, Ounces, Pounds, Grams and Kilograms. Some equivalent measures will also be explored (ex: 2 Pints = 1 Quart).

Second Graders will explore the concept of Perimeter and Area in concrete ways. For example, students may measure the distance around their textbook, or use pattern blocks to “tile” a surface such as their desk.

Students in Second Grade have already had many opportunities to explore numbers that are “less than one” (<1) through Fractions. Kids will now begin representing these numbers as Decimals, beginning with writing money amounts in dollars and cents, using the decimal point (ex: $2.45).

Grade 2 students have already worked with Color, Shape and Number Patterns, and they will continue to discover new ways to create more complex math patterns. This skill incorporates some adding and subtracting, logical thinking, number sense, etc.