Fundamentals of a Good Second-Grade Education

“What should my child be learning in school?” If you’ve ever asked that question, this book can help.

What Your Second Grader Needs to Know is part of the eight-volume Core Knowledge Series—from What Your Preschooler Needs to Know through What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know. The series offers parents, teachers, and children an  illustrated guide to the essential knowledge outlined in the Core Knowledge Sequence, including beloved stories and poems, familiar sayings, interesting information on history and geography, lively discussions of visual arts and music, and explanations and activities in math and science. Updated editions suggest related readings and resources, as well as age-appropriate questions that stimulate thinking and build vocabulary. The first grade volume also includes a section on how children learn to read.

This edition of What Your Second Grader Needs to Know (revised and updated 2014) features:

• A new Introduction
• Illustrated favorite poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, Edward Lear, Christina Rossetti, Gwendolyn Brooks, and more
• Well-known stories, including “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Magic Paintbrush,” a retelling of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, and more
• Literature from around the world, with African folktales, American tall tales, European fairy tales, and classic myths from ancient Greece
• Friendly, fun introductions to world and American history and geography, with features on ancient China, ancient Greece, and America as a new and growing nation
• Suggestions for fun activities that include drawing, painting, or working with clay and other materials, as well as discussions to encourage enjoyment and understanding of masterworks of art
• Introductions to patriotic music, folk music, and great composers, as well as basic music terms and concepts, plus familiar songs to sing
• Interesting activities to support math skills and concepts, including fractions, place value, adding and subtracting, measurement, and more
• Opportunities to begin exploring the seasons, life cycles, levers and magnets, the wonder of the human body, and more