This is a series of books written for The Core Knowledge Series to help parents "prepare their children for a lifetime of learning." This book is a great resource for helping parents know if the school their child is attending is teaching the basic skills that are needed. These are skills that are the foundation for other skills to be built off of. There are multiple books in this series, but today I would like to focus on What Your Second Grader Needs to Know.
This book was written with the parents in mind to encourage them to have a say in the education of their children. The author believes each of these is vital for children to learn in order to be able to build off of these in future grades. He encourages parents to ask to see what curriculum their students are learning and either ask that teachers begin implementing this essential knowledge or that parents teach this on their own at home.
I find that these books have a lot of great ideas all located in one place covering a variety of topics. The main topics included in the book include Language and Literature, History and Geography, Visual Arts, Music, Mathematics, and Science. Each of these sections is broken into smaller sections.
In the Language and Literature section, there are quite a few sub-sections. It begins with a note to the parents about teaching reading and writing to the student. In the Literature section, you will find quite a few poems with illustrations, as well as stories, like "A Christmas Carol." Then come some exciting American Tall Tales like Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill! Ancient Greek myths along with some illustrations follow. Then a section about learning about language, such as rules for writing sentences, what nouns and verbs are. There are tons of great examples here. The last section is filled with familiar sayings, like "Don't cry over spilled milk." This section takes up about 80 pages and does a great job of teaching a variety of topics.
In History and Geography, you will find a great variety of places discussed. This section starts out with a quick review of geography before jumping into Civilizations in Asia. Different religions including Hinduism and Buddha are discussed. Children will get to learn about China and Japan mostly. Then Ancient Greece is discussed for about ten pages. American History and Geography is the next sub-section in the book. The Constitution, The War of 1812 and moving West are all important points along the way. The Civil War, Immigrants and Civil Rights follow along, as well as American Geography. This section is about 90 pages long and does a great job of covering many years of history!
The 20 page section of Visual Arts is very interesting as well. Different topics are discussed, including lines, sculptures, abstract art and architecture. This section has quite a few pictures and does a good job of presenting the different topics.
Music is also covered in about 20 pages. Different kinds of music are discussed like patriotic, classical and folk music. A few composers are discussed and different types of instruments including string and percussion. Then the students are able to learn about writing down music - different types of notes and how they are written on a musical scale. The section ends with six songs to teach the students. If the parent is unfamiliar with some of the songs, it's always easy to find them on YouTube.
Mathematics for 2nd grade is covered in about 50 pages in the next section. Students are working with numbers up to 100 by skip counting, learning odd and even numbers and using a number line. They also learn to use graphs and write numbers as words. Adding three numbers and fractions are also introduced, along with quite a few other math facts. Numbers up to 1000, Measuring and a little Geometry and Multiplication are also included in this section. Money is a sub-section with US coins and paper money. Math is a great section that covers many different math facts to be learned. It's a great resource.
The Science section is always interesting to me. There are usually quite a few experiments to do that help reinforce the lessons. This section is about 40 pages long. The Cycle of Life and the Seasons starts off this chapter, followed by The Water Cycle. Insects are covered next including what makes one an insect and their life cycle. The Human Body is discussed in this chapter as well by talking about cells, tissues, and organs. Magnetism, Simple Machines and Stories about Scientists finish out this section. I know that most kids like to read about what scientists have invited and do some experiments, so this is definitely a fun chapter!
I believe that this would be a great book to help any parent who is questioning if their child is getting a well-rounded, fundamental public school First Grade education. It is even something a homeschool parent would want to use to make sure they have covered all the basics for their child. This is a book I plan to pick up again, even if it is to check off the nursery rhymes and songs as I teach them to the kids.
There are many books in this series and I plan to go through each one in the future. Be sure you check back to see what your kindergartner, 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th grader needs to know. Sadly, I don't have 3rd grade (and I have no way of getting it here)! Each photo was taken by me of the book pictured.
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