To encourage a sense of autonomy and independence, we invite the children to select titles for their private reading. The city's ethnic neighborhoods present wonderful opportunities to explore the diversity among cultures and learn history through a study of immigration. The science curriculum in second grade involves the children in studying magnetism, building and understanding simple machines, and learning how their body systems function. In mathematics, second graders study concepts of place value and numeration and strengthen their mastery of subtraction and addition. Among new topics introduced are regrouping, the metric system, and rudimentary multiplication and division.
Problem solving is stressed throughout.