second grade
Our projects integrate academic disciplines, and developmental domains, offering a rich emergent curriculum that meets and often exceeds Elementary State Education Standards.
Second Grade: Applying Skills with Purpose
As the years progress, our students receive additional explicit instruction. We use the Wilson Literacy curriculum and Dimensions Math as well as Montessori materials. Explicit teaching allow the development of the habit of practicing skills. These language arts and math skills are then put to use in meaningful ways to fuel emerging projects.
We play so many games from our large collection to repeat and practice skills in a variety of ways to appeal to different learning styles.
The Shape of our Emergent Curriculum
Our curriculum emerges in negotiation between students and teachers from three sources:
Lines of inquiry – Ideas and materials presented by teachers designed to inspire.
Observations of each student’s development – Tailored learning that meets students where they are in their developmental stages.
Student Interests and Motivations – Observations of students’ behavior and passions followed by conversations to uncover what captivates and excites students to challenge themselves and grow.
Lines of Inquiry
The lines of inquire have emerged over the years from our experiences and values. Most projects belong to one or several of them. They are dynamic and grow as the years go by.
Nature Literacy
Ecological processes, biology
Developing Naturalists
The Elements, Physics and Chemistry
Seasonal, weekly, daily weather patterns
Sounds, Voice, and human languages
Our story from today, and backwards through historical timeline
Diversity of tools, their language and purpose
Culture, geography, and music
Sustainability and organic practices
Relationships between food and health
Farm Economics
Social graces, mutual respect, relationship building
Responsibilities, Safety, and consent.
Project collaboration
From the time they start at the Farm Campus, our students have been actively involved in hands-on projects that contribute to the development and sustainability of our farm.
Working in small groups, they take turns harvesting and preparing plants for the farmers market. They organize displays and set prices.
In second grade, this multifaceted project branches in other avenues. Invested in boosting their income, they are motivated to learn accounting skills, develop budgets, and explore trade-offs. They vote on decisions after animated yet kind conversations.
This economics project branches into a wide range of activities, including studying plant life cycles, practicing animal husbandry, creating crafts and recipes for products to sell at the market for value added. They are now developing a microgreens production and testing rates of growth under different factors such as number of seeds per cells, temperature, frequency of waterings, and pop or jazz music.
